Even non-indigenous
& maligned as they are,
For having taken over
The American continent,
European Starlings imported
to New York City
in 1890, fly in unison,
& together with Brewers blackbird,
Rusty blackbirds, and yellow-headed
Blackbirds, in great fall & winter flocks,
Yet, they all cranky nest & breed & feed
In small groups, then move off in
Great, great blackbird
Mobial swirl perceptive,
Of all & oneanother but not perceiving, in
An unseen morphic field
Of each other proffering
Themselves as one, moving
North or south on the continent
Thought of as nuisance birds & could it be
That we who have this other perceived nuisance of
All that is natural will
Perhaps one resurrected day, come home
To roost when we see information that
Binds it all, with which we perceive
This perception—has become its own
Notion beyond any
Physical realm & is finally to us
Becoming Supernatural.

Buffy & Chewla were neighbors,
Buffy was a perfectly manicured
ankle humping, white toy poodle,
Chewla was a short haired pitbull
Buffy loved his owner but
had no idea what to do w/his sex drive;
Chewla loved her owners but
had no idea what she was bred to do.
every morning in his backyard,
after pissing & shitting,
Buffy would begin yap, yapping
at Chewla through the chain link fence,
every morning Chewla would whine
& stand w/her tail between her legs
neck arched a little & quiver,
shake, & roll her eyes back
to the house, then back again to
the beribboned white puff that barked
& pissed & pawed the ground across
the fence with the strong odor
of perfume wafting off its curly dog hair

One morning Buffy, snarling & barking
& barring its tiny teeth, stuck his nose
thru the chain link fence & Chewla
grabbed it in her powerful jaws
& pulled his tiny splitting skull thru
the chain link fence with the rest of his body
& tore it into many white & red pieces
while no one was watching.
the husband of Buffy’s owner was
secretly glad–but knew he’d have
to buy his wife another
little dog.

Chewla’s owners laughed about it,
& the man told the story many times
over his lunch pail & thermos,
but two months after his wife
became pregnant, he took Chewla
into the country & while stroking
her, he gently put a .22 to the back of
her head, pulled the trigger,
& told his wife Chewl’d been run over by a truck.

Del Santee’s Irish Uncle
on his mother’s side
was a hit man for the IRA
during the Easter rebellion & beyond
& had to leave for the states
around 1930, give or take
a couple of years,
his specialty having been informers,
& he’d whacked enough of
his traitorous countrymen that by
the time of his departure of
Irish soil it was quite
dangerous for his own
self to walk Dublin’s city
streets in the daytime,
he had followed each assigned
Judas for weeks
until they would eventually
go to confession & then he’d
shoot them on the front steps of the church,
or, very close to the front steps,
having given them a grand
chance at clearing their soul of misdeed
Del and his cousin, fifty years after all of this
took the old man to an Oakland A’s
baseball game, as the former revolutionary
had grown fond of the American game,
& in the bottom of the ninth inning
of a close contest, the elder of the three,
excused himself from his younger charges
& quietly worked his way
into some rows of seats above them & tried
to kill a man, roughly his own age, with an umbrella.
Del said the old man claimed afterward that
“Sure, it was a traitor,”
missed because he’d never gone to confession.
Del said, the old man went to confess
his own sins every day of his life
since he’d left Ireland.

following the path
a small glade opens
into a meadow where
spring fed pond
filled to the edge
of a rock bluff
that forms the brink of
a waterfall and is the headwaters
of a river miles away,
a power of this beginning
that is now rock faced around
the below conifered slope
that holds and slowly drains this
past winters snow melt,
the late summers–wildflowers
out now to bloom bright
starry colors to this
mountain’s summer destiny
found in opened crevice w/moss
& yellow lichened rock, thin air
giving back & away to this summer’s
flash of color,
we could walk there
in this late august,
high on the nights edge
of summer frost

we could walk there
but for the people and schedules
& commitments..
we could walk there
and the late blooming
summer wildflowers will not wait.

love made five animals
rising out of the sea,
first, a colonial creature,
fastened to the rocks, ate what washed
by and showed itself on the lowering of the tide,
second, wore a green cloak, ate of
the sun and covered the earth,
third ate of the second and walked on the
earth indifferently, fourth ate of the third
in an exclusive manner,
the fifth ate of everything.

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
followed movements with
my eyes as a sail fills
with wind and felt the jolt
like a prow taking
its cut through a wave

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
whose slow surreptitious movements,
the turn of an ankle
short measured steps in high heels
a twist of mouth
a glance at a book shelf
or through it

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
whose silent voices echo chapters
of humility and respect
as peasant dresses
and pigtails flow by with ghosts
of Marilyn Monroe movie memories
and placid book cover art

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
rolling book carts to proper shelves
cataloging history and
time and gossip and art

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
crossing legs out of terry cloth dresses with
rouged cheeks and
red elevated lips
taking a book inward
with focus and cognition
while red hair
and white thighs exude
auras of creation

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
as if Sapphos’ lost poems
appeared while I wait for
a tall dark haired woman
to find me here between
stolid wooden shelves
where dreams meet the sea
and hearts have tried
to expose the sky

I’ve been excited by women
in libraries
and have turned pages
of desire toward islands of thought
where there are
rose petaled shores
of sure goodness
and love

was after
dried roses
that ether-death
sickness of after
smell gone
that last warm cold goodness of after
a longtime
meant promise of after
cigarette/heavy
breathing of
after
toilet flush
after
padding feet back to
a rustle of covers
of after, after
slamming doors behind
strained voices of
after beginning before
an end of after always
before the bright
deaf rendering thunder
silent dark flashing
shudder of after
& together before