Small stone - Jan 30

Banana pudding
So what I already ate?
Don't want to be rude...

Small stone - Jan 29

Freshly fallen snow
Layer of ice lurks beneath
I can't keep my feet.

Small stone - Jan 28

At halftime the girl's team all come onto the court.

They grab the practice balls from behind the boys'
bench and try to palm the ball. One girl can do it,
showing off her blue nails, others spill the ball,
and one simply holds hers in an upturned hand.
Laughing, they pose for a photo, then scatter
as the boys reemerge from the locker room.

Small stone - Jan 27

From below the polished wood of the bar
the man in dreadlocks pulls a gleaming can.
The first taste of Strongbow hits my brain
with a buzz that makes everything seem better.

Small stone - Jan 26

Thousands of CDs to catalog
gifted children of hard labor and hope
now sloughed off in stacks of arbitrary value
Ten dollars, five dollars, one dollar
Free.

Small stone - Jan 25

The basketball coach is a colossus,
fully six-feet-seven. Yet he stoops
his head, pulls his limbs inward, like
a box turtle in a giant green turtleneck.

Small stone - Jan 24

In a darkened hallway somthing sharp
bites into my bare left foot.
Reaching down, I discover one half
of a dull white tooth...

Small stone - Jan 23

The lady at the box office looks at the clock,
then takes another pull from her cup of coffee.
In her mind, her day off has aleady begun.

Small stone - Jan 22

Donald Francis Tovey's Essays in Musical Analysis, Volume V,
still has its price of three pounds written in pencil inside the flyleaf,
the peculiar L-shaped pound sign of the bookseller winding around
like a jealous dragon ready to spew the musty yellow plume that
hangs like a cloud within every used book shop I have loved.
I breathe deeply, remember, and put the book back on my shelf.

Small stone - Jan 21

Eight men cold warehouse
power tools, lumber, laughter,
six pack in the fridge.

Small stone - Jan 20

Two cars slide on ice
in a helpless pas-de-deux.
Somehow we don't kiss.

Small stone - Jan 18

Across the concrete floor
of the dance studio,
a great crack is spreading
I look down guiltily
at my size 12 tap shoes...

Small stone - Jan 17

It was my favorite tech haunt
for longer than I can say.
Now, like some misbegotten
hurricane-ravaged shanty,
Wintergreen Systems wears
boards at every window.
The answering machine
tells me, without a trace of irony,
"Sorry, no one is available
to take your call right now."

Small stone - Jan 16

Twenty seven geese emerge
reluctantly from the river
to huddle on the lawn
outside the high school,
just another band of teenagers
pulled too early from bed.

Small stone - Jan 15

The computer blinks slowly
The clock in the kitchen sighs
My coffee has a thin beard
And I am too wired to sleep.

I know better than to start a
computer project after ten p.m.

Small stone - Jan 14

wholesome seduction
three hot pretzels dance for me
sweating beads of salt

Small stone - Jan 13

The neighbors' lap dog
is wearing a plaid jacket.
It looks embarrassed.

Small stone - Jan 12

Above the lockers
a thousand students are pinned
like bees in amber.

Small stone - Jan 11

A broken heart looks
so much like a heart in love
I am at a loss.

Small stone - Jan 10

Impertinent squirrel scolds shrilly
then jumps cheekily from the fence.
Our old dog follows dutifully swaying
like driftwood on a wild green sea.