not haiku

under sunshine corridors

bees are singing

doors  are clinging

set them aside

jazz plays on

jangled rhythm

settles into groove

disappears

sharp notes listen

minor keys

cleft it out

wander gardens

sneeze

disappear

nothing but vapor

hinted tracks

heckled hens

pay the piper

a logjam or two

disappears

under sunshine corridors

bees are singing

cleft it out

a salvo or two

keeps it interesting

not exceptional

not haiku

denis streeter    5/27/21

where i'm going

in the afterlife

a shade slow

beams forward

testing for angles

sharp edges

filing rasps 

drink tea in bed

cushion testing

matter-o-fact

warming cooling

dusting for bees

rabbits for collars

wrench forward
in the afterlife

dogs wait

cats wander

a wrench of time

wrinkles yawns passes

where pools go

other side

dreaming 

other things

indistinct

a comfortable way of dying
in the afterlife

waves  branches and snores

walks away

a wrench 

a water vein

happy

smiling

denis streeter    5/21/21

Another Mayneism

 

One of my favorite children's writers.

Been collecting his books for years.

He saw the horizon waiting to be set on paper and be seen forever, and went down again for paper and paint box, into the empty camp [school boys from the city camping in the country], where the wind moved tent- flaps and the smoke, one speaking like a thought in the night, and the other silent like the moment before sleep.  Michael knew about both, because thoughts sometimes shouted at him when he was alone, and the sound of Northumberland Road would go away just before sleep came, though if he noticed they were gone he woke again.  The camp was as lonely as a skeleton in a desert.

William Mayne, Summer Visitors, Oxford University Press, 1961, page 182

lost in mind

discarded messages
read and disappear
it's not about folly, it's about reason
those sentences in between
reach out like barren altars
subsidized minds
turn the page
it's not here nor there
it's everywhere
fossil institutions
hidden floors
undercover dens
it's not scratch and sniff
it's scratch and disappear
turn the page
all those tongue twisters
all those drug altars
simmer for a minute
disappear
turn the page
for a nightstand and beer
taking lovely by its side
a fortune cookie
a magic oven
a dusty hide
turning pages set aside
by noon they are gone
tongue twisters hide
set to motion
dirty bins hot cross buns lefty lunch
it's as the badger says
drinks and goodbye
washes down his beer
starts over again
has a snort, leaves us behind
those pages keep turning
wondering learning
keeps going on
until it's gone
disappear

denis streeter    5/9/21

may day

most days are not as bad as this

it's just a cashier job
stones you couldn't look up
barcodes you couldn't read
customer who asked my name after i couldn't understand him
asked how long i worked there
i said three weeks
he said they need to train you better
it's just a cashier job
credit card reader didn't work in garden
three transactions in a row
customers paid cash
incredibly busy
i called the manager and he came about five minutes later
people kept moving out of my line and no one would help
it's just a cashier job
customers were good about helping me out
got to remember to have them take picture of scan code
my glasses steamed up in garden so i couldn't read numbers
kept taking them off to clean and put back
i forgot to give back a customer their $50 back
i thought i'd given it back
she went to my supervisor and complained about me
she gave the customer her $50
after all she is a regular
it's just a cashier job
messed up a cash increase
manager had to void it out and start over
and more i can't remember
'cause i don't want to remember
i tried so hard to get everything right
not forget
all i could think of is
i got to get out of here
makes me feel bad
it's just a cashier job

denis streeter    5/1/21