from Vienna sausage on a hot plate
to micro-waved stir fry
thirty years

red buds, hearts as visible & full as mine
Emporia, Kansas

your shape as you pose for me
each tint of you a reflection
of another desire

pastel city floating in fog
wonderland home & not home

cabin filled with smoke
from a poorly laid fire
deep gulps of fresh air

again stars fill the vast Kansas sky
& leaves burn red & gold
yet fog horns haunt my sleep

the river flecked with light
under your belly
the shadowed well-spring

filled with the mystery of life
full moon, I pose

vibrant roundness --
a trampoline
full of children

climbing an invisible rope
up a San Francisco hill
steamed dumplings in China Town

after typing medical reports all night
at Mr. Zion, donuts & an art museum

refrigerator door --
gallery for the changing years

muskrat diving
in jade winter water
high bluff full of chi

standing
above Blue Spring
she flows too

Matthew napping on top of me
as I sprawl exhausted
on the bed

crows caw
in pine woods
the wind rises

turbulent years erode
pretenses & shatter
immature dreams

Kenmore washer
chugs & spins
a heavy load

diapers 10 years running
Cindy proud to rinse them
in the stool

kids learning to read
from Grandma Warren's
BIG books at 4

children scrawling in my books
"just like Daddy"

Cindy dressing Matt & Tim & her dolls
for tea parties

the doll you made for me
stitched with my toddler's face

Timothy befriending
the dragon about to
eat him

climbing rocks
in the Garden of the Gods
car over-heated

Jenny - escaped the crib as a baby
& the house as a teen

the old locks finally open
& we step out, feeling the breeze

"come and play, grandpa!" "What?"
"What?" "What?" giggle & shriek!

the January trees
wait patiently to bud

stitch by stitch
the angels take shape

River's Edge, Eminence, Missouri

January 16 - 17, 1993