Curves Ahead

I wish

I could see this world

and especially myself

through my daughter’s eyes

She draws beautiful women

with impossibly voluptuous curves

while I feel my own

and sigh

Might As Well Jump

Almost arrogantly tall, striding light

but unaware

that epic height offers no protection,

fly without care

as those with power to envelop you

come from nowhere--

If martyrdom awaits, better to soar,

rage your warning to tomorrow’s tall child--

Forms in the Imaginary Garden: CAVATINA

Observation 8-2018

I saw a baseball cap

sporting the slogan

Make Orwell Fiction Again

and it brought a slight chuckle

but not a real laugh

because of course I recognized

terrible truth

The most dystopian feature

of new reality

is the constant background drone

of military planes

always present

in our pristine Valley sky

each always slowly banking

as though it forgot something

and had to turn around

to head back home

suspended

like it wants to get a real good

look at me

They’re circling the farm fields

even peeking through on days

heavy with thunder clouds

and they’re circling the city

of Springfield

bending in and out of view

from the tall windows

of my sixth-floor cubicle

many times each work day

banking above train tracks

and the YMCA

often in pairs

I swear one appears

from behind Mount Tom

every time I drive south

along the Connecticut River

and pass the Oxbow

always startling

seeming to brake and suspend

so still

observing until I turn right

and out of sight

You might say well

there’s an air reserve base nearby

and we’ve long had these planes

populating our skies

but I know

what it was like before

and how it is now

a marked difference

that crept up on us

like so many other losses

we didn’t see coming at first

I hate those fucking planes

and I trust my own eyes and ears

thank you very much

they are the last defense

of we fools

in what has never been

fiction