Blithe

Women get blithe.

Men just get confused.

Women can be indifferent,

Happily so.

A man gets aggravated.

“These are the facts,”

Says he.

“That’s nice,” says she.

Ignoring the contentions

And carefully reasoned outcomes

Altogether.

She doesn’t require them.

As if to say,

“So what”?

 

She’s got blithe.

How can she be so

Cheerful about it?

 

Baffled

Life is baffling

A trip to somewhere

And nowhere

Always familiar territory

Yet unknown

No Map Quest

No guide to the treasure.

You got here

For good reasons or not.

Now what?

 

We want satisfaction

A measure of serenity

And peace

We want to be wanted

By someone, anyone.

Is there an unraveling?

A way to our happy selves?

 

Perhaps the first step is to

Cede the me.

Give it up.

Get out of your bad self.

 

Help others,

Wash a few feet.

Be of use.

No strings attached.

 

No lucre changing hands.

Climb out of your own skull

Life is still baffling

But you might care less.

 

Would you like a foot massage too?

 

Dancing in the Dusk     

It has been years

Music died in me

There was no rhythm I could stand

Quiet was the sound of the day

There is no good music for dying

Maybe for the dead

But not for those clinging to existence.

Now when my roommate comes home

Music fills the dusk

Otis Redding, Amy Winehouse and

My beloved Ray Charles mingle with

The evening breezes

My spirit thrums with the notes

The unique sounds of each.

I dance in the dusk

“Georgia” fills my soul

I am transported to beds of my first loves.

Their sighs are real now.

The slow motion of their stirrings

Run through me.  Part of me.

I love myself again

No longer a stranger in my own skin.

The rhythms gather me

 

My parts newly assembled

It is joy I feel

It is to be alive

Blood beating to the tempos.

Soon I will have someone

To kiss and stroke

Adele  and  Frank will guide me.

Roy Orbison knows my way.

The Righteous Brothers sing a paean

To my growth;

Ray will rejoice in my birth.

 

On the Friendship of Women

Women see in color;

Men in black and white

Women nurture,

They seek the positives

On which to build.

Women will lay aside politics

To percolate a relationship.

Women will make exceptions

Women return a smile.

They presume everyone

Has hidden agendas

They care not.

They generally see

Goodness

They seek to encourage

Not abet.

They more readily

Embrace our humanness.

They more readily forgive.

They more readily touch.

We need them, desperately.

 

So Close

Treading the sands

Of time

Seeking an oasis

Knowing there is a future

Or a past I will understand,

Worth the effort

Hands and knees

Rubbed raw

In the dunes of the desert

That marks our journey,

Not quitting.

 

I shall not be diminished

By the fates

Nor be made small

Or weak

Every day I begin again.

Every night I Pledge

Myself to the fight.