Whistle

I spent endless hours
Working on pursing
My lips just right

With practice I could imitate
Several local songbirds
And keep my self
Company while doing chores

I would do songs and sometimes
Go on so long my lips would ache

It is becoming a lost art
And now people don't
Know what it means
To wet your whistle

A Man

A man
Comprised of
Many parts

His personality
Like the
Seasons

Changes and
Reflects those
Around him

Forces which
Bend and shape

At his core
There holds
A center
Which like
The earth
Allows the
Seasons to
Unfold

Walleye

It is the staple
Fish of the
Minnesota lakes
Country

Filleted and breaded
It anchors many
Special suppers
In that flat land

We had a walleye
Fillet that first
Night in Fosston

In my big
City way I
Inquired of the
Waitress the
Provenance of
The fish

Wondering if
It were line
Caught by a
Sensitive fisherman

"Where did the
fish come from,"
I asked

"It came from
the man who sells
us the fish,"
she replied

Missouri On A Leaf

It was a metaphor
That could grace
His tombstone

An epitaph stood
For what had been

He had in mind
More a sense
Of becoming

He read it years ago
In a“Beat” tract and
It immediately embodied
For him that sense
Of freedom and wonder
That he wanted for
The core of his life

It meant nothing at
All but yet it held for him
Wonderful possibility

Where are you going?

“I’m going to
Missouri on a leaf”

You Know His Name (1)

It was the disease of
incrementalism

Twenty years ago
everything was okay

Then, little by little
there were small changes

Each change was imperceptible
But with the passage of time
the changes in the aggregate
became glaringly apparent

He had no idea he looked
so utterly ridiculous
But the entire world
knew he had a combover

You Know His Name (2)

You could hear him
before you saw him.

He had a high pitched
voice that cut
the air as a knife.

Was he hard of hearing
or did he just want
to be heard.

It seems the volume
made up for an insecurity

He wanted the world
to know he was present

He did count for something
and his voice proved it so.

You Know His Name (3)

He was charming
He moved with an easy
grace and had
the most refined manners

He sounded so
intelligent

Once on the job
he made idiotic
mistake after mistake

His supposed
sophistication was
apparently little more
than a thin veneer

Composed primarily of
his British accent