Tickles and glee
is all I
need whispers and 
secrets wafts of
fragrance and hints 
of spice tease
just like leaves 
whose edges begin 
to turn color 
little things bring
hope to home 
for wee me

It’s the life 
this life that 
I’d been wanting 
oh so simple 
I’m not surprised 
I overlooked it 
but missed not 
for a life 
that is missed
surely suggests once
had and this
I have never 
here we go 
with my happiness 

An ode to
those coffee cups 
the chipped and 
mismatched ones whose 
set has long 
ago gone missing 
to the stragglers 
that are never 
strangers to the 
ones left behind 
testaments of other 
times some better 
and some worse 
and after all 
aren’t we too
just hand me 
downs once used
but never forgotten 

I wish I knew 
because I’d bottle it 
and give it away 
to every high school 
what makes a school 
keep its students friends 
even after fifty years 
just what is it 
that keeps us all 
the way we were
back then long ago 
that keeps us together 
and laughing and smiling 
and saying I will 
see you after school 

I noticed that 
I sigh deeply 
after I write 
it’s as though 
my body says 
this is enough