Knee Stain

Drops swell at branch tip

to catch bubble light and, glass like,

wink to the waiting grass.

Even with scrubbing
the new dirt of the strawberry hill
paves the crease in my finger skin.

Between pig pen, and prodigal proof,
I garden with the angel of Eden,
hoping to keep a foot in the gate.

Put down roots, pull up weeds
hoping for another hand
on the wheelbarrow.

Father and Son team,
such a threat to the devil,
such a joy in the spring wet mud.

temperature tutorial

Lake cold is bluer than veins

snaking up ankles, hoping brain

will hop back to beach hot 

and leave the body surfing to braver souls

with seal thick skins.

There's no boards or language for it,

Great Lake breakers

only waist high, chest cold,

jump just right, swell feeling the sand bar

on belly and loose trunks balloon with water

and flap flag flat like so much

mis-named seaweed.

The shiver delicious in summer,

numb and colored lips smiling in towels

too thin, jawbone creaking as if the ice

set in, and way out in the waves,

without a chance of toe tip on the bottom

Pa swims arm over arm as if last night's stars

could follow him against the tide.

Tag You're It

When license plates expire

every black and white

is a cop or a skunk.

I slow to hug a truck's front

bumper

to hide my tags,

faith and hope

beading beneath the brim

of my baseball cap.

Criminal activity;

ignoring calendars,

fudging checkbooks,

skimping on the cheese

in a work day sandwich.

I insert the receipts for poems

rendered into the ATM,

blank looks from the screen.

C.S. Lewis says other worldly rewards

rhyme with brother, not

bother.