earth note 797

a mourning dove

blue jay

and robin

sitting on the fence

in the church courtyard

just down woods run

from the sign in

don's diner

for extras

as in actors

for another episode

of whatever

and since the blue jay

is the loudest

it only makes sense that

he or she would jump

to the front of the line

with the glossy 8 x 10s

under wing

the director pulling up

just in time in his lexus rental

telling everyone within earshot

that they would all be considered

when suddenly the red robin

lifts a union card from under breast

and the mourning dove breaks out weeping

like an official funeral crier

don't break a leg

--- e b bortz 

two panhandles travel advisory

oklahoma & texas

make for a noisy kitchen

and dusty parking lot

'course there's nothing like

refried beans and huevos rancheros

to take your mind off

the bull riders and bullshitters

you might just say

send 'em back to the phony wooden sidewalks

of dodge city

plastic is forever

     give the termites a break

& way too many

real life shoot 'em ups

& you know the blood just gets thicker

every school year

& this ain't no movie set

or the brainchild of some up & comer

hero-director

we just keep going the miles

until we make a hard perfect 90 degree turn

the sky can never get bluer

a hundred miles in any direction

there will a lost radio signal or two

asking for school teachers and nurses

to send their résumés in for consideration

not if

but when

the tornado clouds roll in

don't stop until you find a basement

     in other words don't stop

every motel keeper keeps a good supply

of fly-swatters

and you'll need to keep one close

like on the night stand with your sweet dreams

     the flies go crazy when the weather changes

--- e b bortz

earth note 796

there's no end to the kansas two-lane

or the hollow sound of an empty silo

july asphalt

sticky tires

a dusty horizon finds nowhere else to hang

peers all the way out

until it vanishes

--- e b bortz 

contingencies

if i run out of ink

i'll use a pencil

if it snows in april (it is)

i'm shovel ready

keep the aclu phone number

& bob kaufman's jail poems

in your back pocket

the snow's piling up outside

wait another day to go to the thrift store

the flowers are trying to close up

& shutdown before they freeze

none of this is a fluke

we don't need a fluke to believe in

the next time you hear bad news

don't call it a fluke

the robin's breast will make you smile

even in a spring snow storm

--- e b bortz 

earth note 795

i gathered up rain

in my hands

dropping it across a bed of phlox

purple & strawberry

as a news truck rolled slowly

down the avenue

looking for a story

beyond the shootings and pandemic

--- e b bortz

earth note 794

green buds start filling in

the tops of the canopy

enough to let daydreams

rise up

releasing them

without notice

a season is a patchwork

making a forest

a ring

a life year

a document

your footprints are your paper trail

starlings speak

like gleaners

some migratory without borders

finding a way here

their journey

our journey

--- e b bortz 

first taste of an allegheny river fog when you're early enough & the deer are still bedded down

for a thirteen-year-old

it seemed like a long greyhound ride

from cleveland heights to rural pennsylvania

just after my thirteenth birthday

life changing you might call it

like from winkie's sixteen-cent hamburgers

at the corner of cedar & lee

to throwing hay bales in 90 degree heat

we lived in a 32-foot trailer

but by the time theresa

& butch & johnny joined us

we were busting at the seams

in spite of this radical departure

theresa knew how to make sense out of it all

like when we all piled into the turquoise ford

and went down to pittsburgh for a pete seeger concert

worried man blues

we seemed to live it

so i ran the hills of butler county

like i was on a mission

like i was roger bannister

but without a country

on the first day of school

my eighth grade history teacher

said to the class "are there any jews here?"

as everyone turned to me olive skin & curly dark hair

so it only seemed natural that we would

settle everything on the wrestling mat

or the rutty 440 yard running track

circling the football field

i never believed acceptance

had to be earned

like who said inalienable rights

needed gatekeepers

by the time we moved again

the allegheny was coughing up blood

i traded down to a trench coat

and a turned-up collar

there were streetcars that could sing harmony

but the fog never lifted

as far as i could tell

--- e b bortz 

the rain in southern thailand was always warm

rain forest morning mist

before the sun beats through

has a sweet taste to it

what looks like a calm ocean

is deceiving

a dip before going to work

is a wake up

the equator rolls up the waves

and sends them falling

with a strong undertow

a rip tide is a force of nature

you can't negotiate with

look for a parallel escape

when you get a day off

bicycle at dawn

down the long hill into phunphin

the train stops there

and there are connections

that will take you all the way south to malaysia

or north to the indigenous hills

if you wait until dusk

the mist might come back

the rain      still warm

is probably just past your reach

--- e b bortz

i'm looking for new ways to find the morning (seasonably adjusted)

the arc of the sun used to be enough

just those first rays

would wake you

if you were at all tuned in

the first blue jay calls

or a robin red breast staring in the window

a neighbor's rooster the authorities have made illegal

faint early dog barks from down in the valley

among the most verbal

is a dog's lick on the arm

a nose

is a memory

sometimes the maples turn their heads

brush off the avenue traffic

listen intently for the secrets

just beyond

--- e b bortz 

earth note 793

there's a woodpecker

knocking at the door

seems like it's time

to get up and see what's up

it's been a couple days

since the flat roof dried out

until then it was a birdbath

waiting for a baptism

some of the trees on the ridge

have fallen in to each other

not quite ready to throw away

the winter crutches

i'm waiting a few more days

until the trail dries out

or until the woodpecker

knocks again

a sudden pass through storm

the other day got a pair of hawks

up and soaring just above the treetops

the dog barked and scared away the deer

     and other mammals

i told you what i know

please don't ask me for the latin

--- e b bortz