ADVICE

A Blue Jay dead

On the pavement

Broken neck

Belly full of red

Berries turned to wine

A window

Out of nowhere

Impedes further flight

Advice can suffer

This same fate

If traveling on

unwelcomed wings

While drunk on

Its own airs

THE SHAKEDOWN

Burgle your own home.

Ransack it.

Throw open the cabinets,

the cupboard drawers,

empty everything out.

Turn the furniture upside down.

Spill your purse, your wallet, your pockets

onto the kitchen floor.

What you have hidden 

from yourself 

should be in a shambles

at your feet.

Shed all your layers.

Step out of your skivvies.

Stand there shivering naked

in the middle of this self-shakedown,

with a mirror as your only witness.

From this place

begin again.

Learn how to say thank you.

And remember:

Keep nothing, nothing

from yourself 
ever again.

TESSITURA*

On the best of days

I am searching,

Reaching

For that perfect,

Impossible note

That lies outside

My natural range.

On these days

I run the scales

Of everyday living

With the fervor

Of a virtuoso.

Texture is

my teacher.

On the worst of days

I am tone deaf

And suffering from

A bad case of laryngitis.

 *acceptable and comfortable vocal range of a singer

WHO'S THERE?

A soul hangs in the balance

Like a door on hinges.

Someone is knocking.

A beggar, perhaps.

Will you let him in?

Feed him?

You might need him
More than he needs you.

THE ISLAND

On one side

All you can see

Is water

In every direction.

On the other,

Shallow rivulets

Snaking through sand.

Both are the tide’s work.

One side's crossable.

The other's not.

To be marooned

Is a state of mind.

Which side of the island

Are you on?