Saturday, April 29, 2017

TEETER TOTTER MOURNING

"All poets are manic depressive." ~Donald Hall

fall deaths tripped a switch, then
too busy, too excited, inspired

too many easy poems
quieter now, is melancholy

descending, again? at my age?
but in fragrant spring

for the first time?
in the past dread winter

would bring me low, almost below
ground--this is, as wallace stevens

had it, a new knowledge of reality
the neighboring leafless red

bud trees fill me with hope
i clip by hand the flattened weed

grasses skipped by my soundless bird
inviting reel mower and i feel well


copyright © 2017 by patrick o'hayer

Monday, April 24, 2017

SPRING AND ALL

"They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter." ~William Carlos Williams

absinthe saturday grass cutting
with quiet reel-type mower

robins alighting silently
eat the bugs thus disturbed

by my work cannot spray 
the blooming creeping charlie

because wind buddha garden
perennials, st. francis garden

tender veg crops
awaiting mother's day sale

my blades of grass
mere ground cover struggling

with goosegrass yellow foxtail
nimbleweed plantains

the demented neighbor's forest
of indestructibly prolific dandelions

thistle henbit nutsedge
fall panicum bermudagrass

my limp whitmanesque blades
half green destroyed

by neighbor's brand new 
blindingly green sod

again absinthe saturday 
all day spring and all



copyright © by patrick o'hayer

Monday, April 17, 2017

GONE

danny boy, king
of the family
jobs at 12
car at 16
married at 19
dead much too soon

sweet maureen
young foe 
of housework then
many many many
babies
traveler, reveler
also dead too soon

lives unknown
in the great world
without celebrity
but family stars
shooting stars
falling stars
make a wish




copyright © 2017 by pat o'hayer

Saturday, April 15, 2017

HOSPITALITY: NOUVELLE HAIKU

barman bonhomie loves us
all barflies behave
blather stay sane pay the tab

barmaid short skirt smile flirty
but take it easy
men are dogs nuts but generous

busman quiet thorough all
but invisible 
backbone of every restaurant

diners divine impossi-
ble facing food trau-
ma in the wrongest venue

hostess congenial glamor
alert friendly wise
first impression best always

owners lean mean investment
shrewd bottomline love
sly worker burden heroes



copyright © 2017 by patrick o'hayer