Dreaming What Is

I never knew you, but I miss
Your ashtray and coffee cup
Set haphazardly amongst
Countertop clutter;
The smoke-tinged tapestry
Hanging behind you, in a familiar place where

You’ve researched and written and
Dreamt – of what is,
Regardless of what was, or
What could be.
I hear Handel’s Water Music
Playing dimly

On an AM/FM radio – the kind
That plugs into a wall, and
Never imagined begging
Cooperation from Wi-Fi deities,
Playlist subscriptions or
Bluetooth speaker devices.

I never knew you, but I think
You’re here, somewhere, amongst my
Countertop clutter;
Hanging around behind me
In that familiar place where we can
Read and write and be.

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Becoming the Family Tree

You trace the lines
Of your heritage
Across
The miles –
Over county maps and through
Graveyards strewn
With leaf litter,
Too-tall grass

You teach the names
Of ancestral
Lines,
Sorting through broken-framed
Photos. We learn names of places
To match the faces
On the family tree,
Delineating regions and times.

Here’s an
Old farmhouse
Painted blue,
Where an ex-con
Now lives;
An acreage where a home no longer exists.
Miles are travelled, names repeated,
Mysteries elucidated.
At least, until we too,
Become the leaves, strewn.

__

Alter Ego

Wear my heart on
Your sleeve.
It will make me nervous, but
I’ll appreciate
You for it.

You’ll say things
I’d never
Dare say, and
You’ll never
Make promises I can’t keep. Wear
My heart on your shoulder,
Where I wear the world.

__