Song of Myself Ironic

There are

all sorts of things

I could say

about myself

all sorts of things

I want to say

and things

I think I ought to say

But sometimes

I say stay silent or

sing a song

of a different sort

The Way of Compost

I am the twenty-first century man

stopping to gaze at the copter

drifting and heeling overhead

Now the human-powered mower

across the wheat field

the front lawn becomes

by the time it occurs

to me

the grass needs cutting

And on the back forty

handfuls of dog shit

gloved and carted to compost

on the pile

before I can even begin

threshing

Contemplating the odious nature

of farmer guy’s day

I consider the compost

Time to spread some

on this here raised bed

or that one there

And that takes another hour

and that makes two of them

I’ve worked since breakfast

I’m about all done in

ready for a nap

when a plane passes overhead

Dog tracks plane

I track dog

and consider, flying machines

or no, how close

dog and I are

to compost.

(Which, by the way,

is the truly secret language of plants,

the place where they reveal all,

swap DNA and

delight in the dawn)

Erectile Dysfunction, The Poem

Who am I kidding?

I’ve had it all my life

It’s a prostate problem now

But it was once

When to take it out

When to put it back

Where to aim it and

Who to share it with

Even, how to wash it

And earlier still

What the hell is that

But it is all

As they say

Good

An incomplete poem...

perhaps to be titled...

If We Try

This is about you
who can do this
stand here
singing out

the pain
from you
to me
and batting it about

until
coming back
in new form
related

but not
what it was
at the start

This is about you
doing this
singing out
the vision

of where you ought to be
good days or bad
living a frontline
sort of life

This is about you
hungering for justice
and true loving
and the occasional ecstatic moment

This is about you
who can do this,
this thing coming next
though you have never

been one to trust
We have batted that about
too
and we know

now
this is about you
who has learned
to trust your deep desire