Memorial Day

Music,
feet up,
must remember-
water garden
tonite.

It's hazy.

A south wind
sends flags
sideways,
the desired
effect.

In my notebook
I've drawn
a flag,
a flower,
a reminder.

Challenge

There's a broad blank cement wall

where the freight trains are elevated.

It runs from Cedar west to the old depot.

You know the place-

behind the post office that's now a bank,

by the parking lot that used to be a bowling alley,

beneath the shadow of the chemical plant.

Anyway, there's this broad blank cement wall there

that is desperate for beautification

at the hands of a poet or urban artist.

Not An Inside Joke Exactly

                                                            for Mandy

This morning the air was cool, humid.

As the sun rose,
a cloud drifted to obscure it
creating a celestial moment.

I had the windows down and an elbow out.

Bowie's Life On Mars? came on.
I turned up the radio
and thought of you.

This lifted a smile
on one side of my face,
as if it's an inside joke
you like that song.

Because I know these things,
you can be with me while you're elsewhere
and I can wear my smirk as if
I have gotten away with something.

Way of Life

In the mountains
they have learned
to position mobile homes
in precarious places,
among the clouds, higher
than the unemployment rate,
where clean coal
is like religion,
and religion
is fundamental.

Foul Mouth of My Mind

I wished her a happy Friday
with a smile and a bit of irony.

"Praise Jesus!" she exclaimed
with all religious sincerity.

I was uncomfortable.
It was Friday, the end of the week,

not the sudden cure
for a terminal illness.

Later the copier jammed
which caused her to mutter

"son of a biscuit," sparing us
the true color of her wrath.

I became enraged for her,
at her, so left the room

to spare her
the foul mouth of my mind.

Answers

He tempered his childhood fear
of mathematics with a deep belief
in calculators, relying on them
for all but the simplest of problems.

He'd always lamented their inability
to extend beyond that subject,
a problem now solved by using
internet search engines.

Within the past week alone, he's
Googled "What are the best words
of comfort at a funeral?" and
"What is this lump on my head?"

to great success.  He has fixed
his car with the computer's assistance
and plans to ask its advice regarding
how to grow potatoes.

Undiagnosed

I'm trying
to be an optimist.

Your doctor's appointment
is in an hour.

We haven't spoken
since this morning.

I loosen my tie, and
tap a pencil on a notebook.

My worry has settled
into my abdomen.

It is a dull pain, and
a sharp reminder

that I'm trying
to be an optimist.