moment

Snake Creek with a Rainbow. Image, my own.

Beautiful Boy

In my line of work,
I get to see things
And hear things
That many people do not,
Will not, see and hear
Personal narrative: a genre
Used to tell one’s story
To put your truth into
The World, tell your
Life to the Universe
Of all living things
To say, to see,
To be seen
To listen
These are very tender
Moments—actions, braveries
Moves—today a young man
Quietly said to his classmates
Boys want to be Beautiful
Too, boys want to be
Given flowers and trust
And the opportunity,
To be Vulnerable
Boys want to
Be seen and soft
And before you scoff
Please know that to put
Eyes on this young man
He was “normal”
Which doesn’t exit
But he wasn’t some standout
He wasn’t crying to be
Noticed in a needy, cloying
Way he was sincere
Brown eyes shining
And serious, he said again,
Boys want to break down
Boys want to be treasured
And saved, and tendered
Boys are complex and
Layered, multi-faceted
And so easily shattered
So easily loved
Beautiful boy

Melt:
for the hottest October on record

things melt like banana
popsicles on hot sidewalks

hearts at the cuddle of
a tender puppy’s nuzzle

sun as it sherberts into sunset,
dreamy scoops of carnelian, fuchsia, crimson

water being sublimated into
sediment, becoming sludgy mud

metal silver when heated to one thou-
sand seven hundred and sixty-three degrees

falsity as you live in truth in the world
as it is, not as you wish it to be

light refracted and gloriously dispersed
through water into the entire color spectrum

butter bubbling, sizzling in the fry
pan in anticipation of the next repast

bodies into one another, warm
with the savior-vivre of desire

Sitting in Cars with Moms

Listening to music with abandon, shake it
Hearing a favorite podcast in a vacuum, rapt
Slumping over the steering wheel, emergency
Crying, tears pouring down cheeks, salty
Praying as if there is no tomorrow, apocalypse
Laughing raucously with a friend on the line
Changing the ka-billgionth diaper on the seat
Resting the eyes at the thought of dinner, cook
Wanting for a touch a hug a support, embrace
Kicking back the seat for a true nap, snooze
Reading a book while a child is at music lessons
Waiting for babies in the carpool line, patient
Scanning a prescription before returning to sickness
Sipping a drink in silence while ruminating,
Pondering the existential crises of humankind
Yodeling to an Oktoberfest hit, hot 100
Brushing back the hair, mustering a smile, love

Hope Feathered in Me Today

Rose like an owl in the dark
of night. Off on an important
measure. A simple key into what is
Take no more than you give.

On this day we celebrate
The now— the moment— what is
As it is what we have to celebrate
Looking into the moon-face of our children

Listening to their dreams. Holding
a lover after a frozen lamp-lit tramp
Into the pitch-dark night
Drawing lines across a page,

A stone, a landscape to remember
Each leaf outlined, sepia veins,
Each intricate brace of existence a
Falling into one another– hope

Four little poems for your day.
Happy, Merry sweet humans.
xx MM

Central Park bathed in sunshine (June 2024).

….

Flow

flow can be the essence of knowing
the power of prescience
the smell of petrichor
the smooth surface of an ocean
tossed pebble, translucent amber
the great wave of goodness
but flow can also
be the tumultuous spume,
the glassy, wind-bereft waters,
the deep, dark, depths
the void, the unknowing
don’t forget that flow has
many ways and many waves

….

Into the Green

There are more words,
expressions, descriptions of green
in human language than
are intoned for any other chroma

when you are draped in green
golded and guilded in green
it is completely obvious
why this hue

green captures the eye
grounds the heart
breaths through the body
as you realize that you’re respirating

at the same rate as the statuary oak
next to you
the ash is breathing out a sigh
of joy, just as you do

The cottonwood leaves glittering
green, making a magical cacophony
of nearly silent whispers which
crescendo into a forte of breezy, winsome refrains

aspen, largest living organism,
holding ground in root and spear as they
shiver and rattle in green all their own
a sort of awe and wonder at once

alluring, regenerative, stable, steady,
cholrophyllic music, all love-mixed
whimsy and reality each leaf a hard-earned
medallion, sign of life

….

Reverberation

It’s impossible to feel alone soaking in the reverberation of humanity ringing through the great halls of civilization. The echo. The sound. The deconstructed interplay of all those expressions and explications bouncing and bounding around in the domed, arched architecture. Dancing over the simulacra, art, massive and tiny, representative of nothing and everything. The absolute alacrity the beatific joy of each repercussive utterance. Jazz. A fusion of improvisational auditory stimuli. The resounding transcendence of humanity in the envelope of a space. Astonishing.

….

Tuesday

On a Tuesday
in December
Life will eventually
present you with the
fact that you have
absolutely no answers
not one

I don’t use that word
lightly—fact

On a Tuesday
in December,
You’ll be opened
wide by the love
of the people
who have offered
you a life raft,

A golden, glittering
net—a light, a torch.

You’ll come to
the understanding,
the conclusion,
that life brings
you many endings,
many beginnings
to teach you

that life has no
end no beginning

it simply is
this beautiful imperative
this open, pulsing
opportunity at love
that you will never
receive again, this moment
this is it