Poems For Today - April 26

Day Of The Winged Lion

 

Early this morning while boarding the bus

One of June's neighbors came by with her son

She was asking MaryJo and Ken about our bus

And took her five year old son Alex

To read the poems on each side

After they left, Alex returned with a gift for us

A small, purple, winged lion that we placed

In the middle of MaryJo's dream catcher

A gift she gave the bus when we left San Rafael

A lifetime ago.

This tour has changed us and everyone's faces are more relaxed

The poems keep finding us and wherever we go

We often pass out at the dinner table

But we always have a floor to sleep on

Kurt is 66, Ken is 59, Isa is 65

June is 65, Erika is 59, MaryJo is 55

And Irina is 23

What's up with that?

 

Kurt & Ken (Mobile Poem)

 

Woodland

 

Kurt caught his finger in the door and screamed F**K

at the top of his lungs. Obviously not an enlightened being

We just left a memorial interchange dedicated to someone

we've already forgotten and now its I-5 north to Red Bluff

Our final destination although we will do a victory lap

to the SETI site on Monday.  June is on the bus,

but Dick's gone up ahead to put his house in order.

After fixing and repairing all of June and Nina's

carpentry and plumbing.  Walmart is such a presence

on this highway, we are obliged to include them

Always low prices, but somebody's paying for it somewhere

We suspect they are in China.

The pets of America everywhere are better fed

and better nourished than several billion children.

 

Kurt & Ken (Mobile Poem)

 

Silent Spring For Rachel

 

It's so nice when June is with us because she laughs at my jokes

Off to our right is the smallest complete mountain range in the United States

Sacred to the Colusa Indians. Over the snow capped mountains to our left

is Clear Lake, home to DDT and was the inspiration for Rachel Carson's outcry

Now she'd be dismayed by the reckless treatment of mother earth

and wouldn't stop weeping for us. I know we can't go back,

how could we live without High Definition Television

Smoke fills the sky from rice fields being burned

Here's Ken's favortie coffee stop, Java City so we get gas where there used

to be Granzella's Deli, full of animal trophy heads and a glass caged polar bear

until it burned down last year. Mary said the press is coming today because

of the vandalism at the park and Ken said it has turned out to be a gift.

Whatever makes the puppy jump!

 

Kurt & Ken (Mobile Poem)