Austin Poet

Thanksgiving 2023

11/26/2023

I'm thankful for rain when the earth is dry
and storm clouds gather in the lowering sky
Thankful for sunshine on a winter's day
that warms my shoulders at an outdoor café

I'm thankful for shelter and a roof overhead
with indoor plumbing and a comfortable bed
Thankful for good days when nothing much hurts
or if it does it just hurts in spurts

I'm thankful for kisses and warm embraces
and long lazy lunches at uncrowded places
Thankful for kindness in word and deed
and rooms full of silence with plenty to read

I'm thankful for music and laughter and song
and rituals that make me feel I belong
Thankful for family, my friends, and my wife
and deeply, eternally grateful for life

Two Streets

10/14/2023

I step outside to see my street
The fall has dulled the summer heat
Charming houses, leafy trees
Neighbors doing whatever they please
Roommates, sweethearts, husbands, wives
Ordinary people getting on with their lives
No soldiers here, no military police
Everybody lives in peace

The news is showing a different street
Strewn with bodies under a sheet
Machine gun fire where children play
Innocent victims caught in the fray
Women with babies dead in their arms
Panicked by incoming rocket alarms
Smoldering rubble and terrible screams
Bombed-out buildings and shattered dreams

Starkly different streets portray
Two ways of life in our world today
Rejoice if you live in a peaceful spot
Then grieve for those who, alas, do not

Texas Drought

8/26/2023

I can't remember when it last rained
Several moons have waxed and waned

The thirsty earth is cracked and dry
With not a drop from the pitiless sky

The grass will all stay dead and brown
Till soaring temperatures come back down

Trees are struggling to stay alive
Many of them will not survive

The future hangs in serious doubt
As we endure this deadly drought

One thing cheers me beyond words:
When the bird bath fills with fluttering birds

Splashing and chirping and preening in the sun
Lifting my spirits with their pool party fun

The Oneness of Love

8/26/2023

A flock of starlings hovering above the trees
A murmuration building as more keep arriving
Swooping and swirling and darting and diving
Choreographed and organized
Everyone perfectly synchronized
Even the murmurs are harmonized
Reminds me of the oneness of love

A mercurial shoal shimmering in shallow seas
An aquatic ballet performed to perfection
Flickering silver in the sun's reflection
Fishes flitting in one direction
Back and forth and in between
Guided by something that can't be seen
Reminds me of the oneness of love

Like A Song

4/14/2023

Maybe life is like a song
We're just here to sing along
Music moves us deep inside
Lyrics keep us occupied

Maybe life is like a dance
Pick your partner, take your chance
Some will never feel the beat
Some will sweep you off your feet

Maybe life is like our dreams
Chaos taken to extremes
Vague and hard to understand
Not at all what we had planned

Maybe life's not worth a dime
Pointless and a waste of time
But I can't believe that's true
Not as long as I have you

The Lockdown Got Me Down

3/17/2023

Mesmerized by flickering flames
I'm reminded of people, places, names:
The world I knew before the blight
imposed restrictions overnight
Curbed my social interactions
Interfered with my transactions
Brought my world to a screeching halt
Locked me down and it wasn't my fault

I remember places
and a sea of faces
that were once more familiar than they are today
Now I'm out here once again, feeling my way
Out in a crowd
Out on the town
I must admit the lockdown got me down

We've had a few gatherings at home and out
Excited loved ones clustered about
Hugging and kissing
(That's what's been missing!)
Saying things we couldn't write
in emails during the wretched blight

So yes, I'm back in touch
But not as much as I used to be
The blight changed so many things, you see
And one of them was me

My Email Address Book

2/17/2023

My email address book lives in a file
that I edit and update once in a while
The software program lets me delete
any address that becomes obsolete

Some of those dot-com details, however,
will remain in my email address book forever:
Friends and relations who've gone on ahead
to realms where emails are no longer read

I cannot delete them
Don't even try
I just can't bear to say goodbye

Eight Billion

1/7/2023

We went forth and multiplied
when we came down from the trees:
hesitant hominids in twos and threes
The air was hot and the earth was dry
The time had come to say goodbye
to our closest cousins, the chimpanzees

We ventured out across the world
hunting and gathering and playing with fire
Honing the talents we would all require
Some made rafts and ruled the waves
Some drew pictures in their caves
for other cavemen to admire

Seeds grown in fertile soil
yielded what we need to eat
so we tilled the earth and planted wheat
In time we started drinking wine
when grapes appeared on someone's vine
and friends and neighbors pressed them with their feet

As the eons lumbered by
we paid attention to the sky,
saw constellations move and wondered why,
invented language, mathematics, the wheel,
music, penicillin, and steel
All we had to do was try

So, yes, we've multiplied
Begotten umpteen generations
Human populations
are steadily mounting
Eight billion now, and still counting

Thanksgiving 2022

11/28/2022

It's a dream come true
being here with you
at our annual Thanksgiving rendezvous
What have we done this year? What have we said?
What have we written? What have we read?

Some sat on balconies
and watched their evenings, mornings, afternoons
measured out with coffee spoons

Some wandered lonely as a cloud
through rolling meadows and vacant lots
and far-off fields of forget-me-nots

Some chose this time to leave
To make their way towards the light
and go gentle into that good night

Some were focused on the future
with children at their feet
Wondering how they'll manage to make ends meet

Some scribbled, some drafted
Some fiddled, some crafted
Some pushed, some pulled
Some broke away
in search of something to say

But today we take a break from the bustle and the noise
lay down our tools, our weapons, and our toys
to form a circle, you and I
and raise our thanks up to the sky

Lights Out!

10/15/2022

Where do you go when you turn off the light
and it's dark as a pit in your room?
Do you fantasize about spending the night
in Tutankhamun's tomb?

Are you whisked away to a cool cabaret
where the doorman shakes your hand?
Where you blend with the crowd and mumble out loud
in a language you don't understand

Do the scenes in your dreams seem familiar at first
until you can see that they're not?
Do the characters blur into somebody else
and there's no making sense of the plot?

Do you dream in color or black and white?
Does your poodle turn into a shark?
Are you wondering what to make of your dreams
as you lie there alone in the dark?

And all for what, since they're all forgotten
the moment you open your eyes?
Gone like mirages that vanish at dawn
with nary a word to the wise

But deeper down perhaps there's a reason
we spend so much time in our dreams
For they cleverly show us, again and again
that nothing's as clear as it seems

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