When the impulse is there, but not the words,
why not create
a holding
place for
each
small
shiver
of longing
to stretch and shake
until it finally takes shape and speaks?
JDG
Bureaucratic Bliss
Reattestation –
a process that attests to
the mindless triumph
of computerized glitches
over simple common sense.
JDG
As I Go About My Day
The question I want
to keep before me as I
go about my day –
Is what I’m thinking, saying,
or doing adding
to my own suffering or
the suffering of others?
JDG
Some Trees
This year it seems some
trees have slipped past red and gold
and have sought refuge
in a familiar green or
grounded themselves in bland brown.
JDG
That Mind Of Mine
That mind of mine
can go on and on
as though I failed
to take note
the first time it spoke.
My body tightens
in response, but then
my heart smiles
on them both
and before long
the mind pauses
in its monologue
and a three-way
conversation begins.
JDG
Mistaken Identity
A license plate read
CROWNHM. I thought Jesus, but
Trump said it was him.
JDG
Doggie Lament
He sniffed, sampled, cast
me a look. “Why change brands?”
he seemed to say. “Can’t
you humans let things be and
not strive for variety?”
JDG
Ah Yes
What’s that muttering I hear?
A teen talking to herself?
How it’s not fair
to have to clean her room?
How she won’t treat
her own kids that way?
Ah yes,
how strange it is to hear
my own words echo
across sixty years.
JDG
That’ll Show Them
I did the only
thing I could when I opened
my sock drawer and found
a mouse – I screamed and said I
was going to build a wall.
JDG
For Starters
In moments of stress, may I find a way
not to increase
suffering,
mine or
theirs.
JDG
aholdingplace 