4th of July in Vermont
                      for Lindsey
 
Dear Friend, I am so sorry
I will miss seeing
the Bristol parade this holiday
 
with you.  It’s raining again where we are
and when it isn’t
it’s about to rain again.  Here
 
comes the rain! Robert says
and I look up
expecting to see the meadow grass
 
sodden and low (will it ever
be cut this year?
I know it won’t, not if it never
 
stops raining), expecting to see
rain on the deck
the drops dancing like stars in a wet sky 
 
as they go out, but instead I find
light on the woodbox
where the sun has decided to shine
 
on my side of the house. 
 
 
 

Celebrate

​
with everything shut down
in a tight little box no
words for it for the rage
my fellow citizens
who used to be wise
turns out your wisdom
was a full belly
which tells no lies
or tells only lies
what did you do
what have we done
 
only laughter works
and we are choking on it
everyone has a joke
choking on the last laugh
if America is first
the Netherlands wants
you to know it wants
to be Number Two
it is good to laugh but
it hurts even more
afterward
 
and the lost words the words
no one wants anymore
jobs worker victim
patriot great decent
and the ones
we cannot find for the rage
for the horrors
here and to come
a whole lexicon
of civic being
beyond use


and only the big words
useful now like treason
tyrant and traitor
and the little
ones like hope
maybe and let's
wait and see
celebrate
while you can
what you did what
we have done