I Wrote "Monday Mornings" at the height of the low-period of my divorce. Monday morning seemed the perfect stage at the time. This is from Fall, 2011.

Monday Mornings

Idle shards of winter light
Listless breeze through idle palms
I retrieve news daily
scheduled over chilled driveway pavement
Yawn observing velvet mountains
soaring in warming sunlight
Neighbor belches startled engine



"Shattered Obsidian" is another product of the early divorce period. Its darkness is further shadowed by my having just listed my house for sale in the depth of the "Great.Recession." This is from Fall, 2011. My house was the third on the house to go.Neighbors stopped talking to once the sign appeared in the front yard.

Shattered Obsidian

Self absorbed shock
I flow like shattered obsidian
Walk head down
hands in pockets
braced against climbing path
Neighbors stare at feet



Inventing nothing to share
A rabbit pauses
Ears  observe everything
Thin soup simmers
Flowering my room at nightfall


Webb at Dawn is a peaceful "escape piece" from the dark Fall of 2011. It is an attempt to find  the happy side of an otherwise uneventful dawn.


Web at Dawn

This passage
A riff in three notes
Trollop and whim
Our relentless pursuits
Triumph and failure

Admire dawn light
Striking an Orb Spider
Tireless,  re-stitching her web
Land fishing
Undaunted in wind, rain and
Possibility


Solitary Rat is a tribute to a Mama Rat who took up residence one Winter to have her pups in my garage. Roof rats are a fact of life in Southern California. You can call in an exterminator a few times a year or let nature run its course and eventually rat and family leave, clean-up the mess in the Spring, living and letting live.


Solitary Rat