would write a longer song
for you, companion of my
village – between us we could
find small gold lodged in
the muddy paths we trod upon,
while passing under lurking
murky rainblows that can
accompany these storms of life –
please take extra special care and
remember to wear your slicker

finally found a term for it –
pseudologia fantastica – manifestations
too numerous to mention here but,
unacknowledged, caused glacial silences,
a perpetual rift, a hair-raising backdrop
of half-told stories texturing my
childhood with their inexplicable
brocade, fabric of lies made into
slipcovers that will never be unraveled
because I’m too afraid

companion on the night crew
Word Processing Center City of
Eugene – yes she spelled her
name like that (we would
know you know) collector of
depression glass and not depressed
or broken though she wanted
to keep her health insurance –
husband had none and being a
motorcyclist needed frequent maintenance

he said “I wonder how
much therapy it took” –
meaning to achieve her level of
spontaneity, joy spilling as she
whirled around the office twinkletoed
and veiled in golden hair –
bureaucratic princess from the dawn
of the word processing revolution,
explaining “fields” and “files”
to us with cookbook metaphors

known as sandy, less a
prophetess of doom than a
participant in it (as we
all are (there is suffering))
cranky here because I find
the fundamentalist response particularly
unhelpful and wonder why we all
can’t be more open-minded
listeners to the real though faint
prophetic voices of our day

her recipe for oat scones
one of my prize possessions
she had the life I wanted
but couldn’t quite pull off –
earth mother at home in
Oregon countryside calm job
word processing hair very long
two daughters friendly gentle
smiling it would have been so
simple, wouldn’t it?

still striving

cautionary tale, soap opera,
movie treatment, or all in my
imagination – but based faintly in
reality – witch meets pantheist,
leaves her marriage to an actuary,
dyes her hair red, studies
chiropractic, reiki, and transforms her
life completely – something vaguely scary
underneath, confront it? no, at our
brief reunion, warmest greetings