November 2024
Bio Note: My writing appears in 54 literary reviews. and my two books of poems, Lyrical Years (2023, Kelsay) and What I Meant to Say Was... (2023 Impspired) and graphic memoir My Life in Fish: One Scientist’s Journey (2023, Impspired) are all available on Amazon.
Missing
For three weeks, house & chores—mine alone, Barb ensconced
at the little toe of San Francisco Bay, now helping her
final sister up the crooked stairway—chemo and radiation.
I pull a week's worth of musty flannel sheets off our
marital bed, to find a tracing of Barb's outstretched
arms and legs; four decades, a faint K remains.
Shopping and vacuuming both, now too tired to cook,
I smile at the purchased roll of tunamaki, like me,
the rice is geriatric—a “sell by” bargain.
Watering and harvesting our garden's winter bounty:
lettuce, kale, scallions, carrots, bok choi, and mizuna.
Wash, rinse, refrigerate.
My eyes tire, vision drifts, as I wonder, which of us
will end up in the solitaire setting?
Osmosis
It’s a common party
scene, right? The cocky +1
guest who replies, from
within a rain coat of
insecurity "Just joking."
The precursor, "Yeah but
how many of these books,
have you actually
read?" Neuroses aside,
he’s tapped the nail and
driven it in, as I
scan my shelves and stacks
and realize only
half of these spines have been
cracked, especially those
stacked like a high-rise with
multicolored floors.
Dust settles on shoulders
and the backs of hands as
we plan, postpone, order
that must have book while time,
an ever-present breeze, scrapes
away all dust.
I laugh and reply
"Actually I’m
hoping to learn via
osmosis."
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