Poems: Bookstore and Reset

Bookstore

I step into

The                  Of the

Boundaries      Bookstore

And I am in pain

Because of all the stories

I cannot have

            here

Reset

With my computer’s dying breath

It says it’s shutting down;

I feel the same.

Poem: Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear

You ask me, when we were little-

“What makes you feel better

When you feel bad?”

I said my teddy bear,

Ragged and torn as it was.

I asked about yours in return

And you said, “It’s you.”

Now I have to decide

Whether I am more or less ragged

Than my teddy bear.

Poem: Songs About Home

Songs about Home

The fireplace is warm

And the cold has lost its charm

As we sit in the grand-slam

Living room chair.

We are full and we are fine

Sipping our half-glass wine

In the easy light

Of the late night

And we reject the telegram

Of outside freezing air.

This chair is old, and cushions deep

Cradle us in their lair

The fire dances and shadows creep

Close to us, if they dare.

And while it is good to wander and roam,

This is why there are so many

Songs about home.

Poem: Memories

Memories

Broken windowpanes on a sun-bright afternoon,

I shouldn’t have come back.

Back to the shattered memories,

Back to the hope childhood;

Overturned chairs on a hardwood floor.

I used to wait here,

When the windowpane was whole

When the chair was upright

When the memories weren’t memories,

They were life.

I used to wait here,

And now it is waiting for me.

Fiction: Season Reason

Dan’s foot slipped as he was putting up the large inflatable Santa. His foot sank several inches into the earth before he pulled it back out.

“Darn hole,” he muttered, “Every year. And of course Marie’s gonna get on me again about filling it in…”

On the porch his wife, Marie, stood with a critical eye next to the inflatable turkey he’d just taken down. Across their small lawn, various-colored Christmas lights, reindeer statues, multiple Santas, and a plastic snowman playing a flute were strewn around.

“Dan,” Marie called, “Do you think we have enough decorations?”

“I dunno, honey,” Dan said. “I can get some more at the store when I go into town.”

"Yeah, you do that,” Marie said. She looked out at the reindeer, the snowman, the Santas, and the lights. She continued, “It just feels like we’re missing something.”