New Home

Blank slate colored
Floors smell
Of raw paint and
Possibilities

Tape tentatively marks the
Boundaries of
Many future battles

For one speck of time the
Coach’s desk is
Bare
Shelves well
Ordered
Tools not yet playing
Hide and seek

The lock is stiff
Light switches
Clean the bathrooms
Sanitary
Just for now

No one’s found their
Proper spot
Equipment shifts from here
To there and
Back
Even the parrot has
Not settled on her relocated
Perch

Closing up, I spy
Beneath the benches
Crumpled cup, forsaken glove
Fugitive spring, stray
Cookie crumbs

And so it starts
The slow accumulation of
Detritus
Physical and psychic
Karmic coloring

Be mindful as we write our history
Into these walls
The geomantic power of our memories
Emotion

Let’s make new stories worth the telling of the tale…

On the Slippery Nature of Truth

I tell stories

Funny how they all reflect
The past with
Such a rosy glow

The bout concludes and
Straight away the
Spin
Begins

However much I
Think I want to understand
Exactly what occurred
And where
I erred

My well-constructed buffers
Intervene
Egoistic airbags
Pad my pride
Preserve my
Self-regard
En garde

Maybe if I rush to
Publication
Pause while soaked and half disrobed
To
Spill the beans
By tweet or text or post
--Debrief 2.0--
I’ll accidently leak the
Inside scoop
Straight poop

Tomorrow I’ll reread my own early edition
A true front line account sans error or omission

Appellation

Otter ripples
Up and down the strip
Three hops and a glide
A bounce
A pounce
A nip and run away

Just half grown
—An otterling—
Still learning his
Capacities
His teeth and claws
Testing the
Muscled water of his
Lunge

He
Somersaults between
Frustration and playful
Delight in
Bite and tease and squirm
Impatient that he hasn’t quite
Assumed his final
Form
Not yet reconciled to the fact that
Some fish get away

I watch him wrestle, bout and
Grow in skill and
Speed
Sure-footed execution
Soon he will outpace my reach
Larking in his native element

May he always fence with otter confidence,
Otterly absorbed in his pursuit