28. Hartland

On a bright day, I realized that
if the god's are angry, they
are shouting over the same cold plate;
the familiar carrot children, the cob
the greasy chicken fresh from the grill, among it

hair fell from my shoulders as I saw a leg 

jabbed here and there, above the barber,
and I felt it inside me. The places where
the gravy pools, with a kernel of corn,
sitting condemned by the white peaks,
who never laid low or were ever glazed;
"We've kept our shape, we've kept our shape!"
they holler, "purity!", they holler, "high pride";

unaffected as they are, they are, ignorant of the potato, 

and their darker ground years, before they were dug. 

On a bright day, I realized
if the god's are angry, they
may very well also be quite hungry. 

26. Midland (Ancestor of Gyges)

I saw the ancestor of Gyges
he was not so smart. He left
too many doors open, and
too many foot prints in the snow.

I saw the ancestor of Gyges,
sneaking, thieving in the night.
Wall light, washed, he was not ready
he went back down, quietly, alone,
I watched him go.

24. Alma II

Crooked and cricked,

the rest of my life through?

Peer, she skinny, my scope

still widening, feeling

nostalgic and prideful, increases

increasing more with the days, I

morph, more, crooked and cricked,

in my own way.

I think crooked and cricked,

sweetens with age, means more

meaning in time. I think it is the

sunset marble, and flashing red,

expired, parking meters at night.

Crooked and cricked, a life of service

What steaming service, serve me?

I am an Umbrella! I am an Umbrella!

After all, I've never been one to think, God's

spittin' on us in the rain.

23. Grand Haven

A knock below me comes from the door
bed won't be left, so
I wonder if the car window is open
if soft grey seats are soaked to foam
with the dagger droplets of
February rain.

21. Saginaw

I am the vicar of myself,
on earth, and I say
that life is lived
in the time between the toilets.

See, upon perlustration
(when truly squeezed)
it fails to burst, filling with
blood, and it’s back to the
bathroom I run, more
worried adult, than child,
and more.

20. Hastings

A doom
befitting me,
bemoaning,
things long forgotten,
aswarm with feeling
and dust.

Silently standing, you
pass your judgment,
Remontant blooming,
subtly withholding,
glossy secrets of
silk and screen.

16. Cedar Springs

Surprise, realization, 
shouting dancers, gyrate;
to lead the conclusion; 
I have achieved the grim look of a writer. 

   My hair has grown long,
   scraggly beard unkempt,
   wrinkles in age old clothes.

I walk by, you already say nothing; 
happiness does not bound the barrier, 
saltation flows preserved.
I would not have acquiesced
a squeak from supple lips; and
thus silence arrives with her
somber thought pennies.

2. Negaunee

I’ll never forget Negaunee,
squatting, staring over
Superior water’s, cold,
                                       windswept,
                                                             waves.

One wondrous ripple rolls close
whispering, ‘I’ll never understand her’
and throws itself upon the stony shore.

I watch the tiny beads, shatter and squirm back
towards the great cold lake, and I have nothing to say.

Another is thrust up, quickly proclaiming
‘I! I am to blame!’, and breaking in dissolution
polishes damp stone.

I poke between pebbles,
 ‘Surely, not you, dear ripple.
Surely not you.’

I’ll never forget Negaunee,
squatting, staring over,
Superior water’s, cold
                                      windswept,
                                                             waves.

4. Harvey

Awake, dear trainman,
such a sweet solace 
curled on a couch
cleft in your coach
have you found. Though
sequestered sweetly,
newborn sleep i must disturb,
Pardon sir, pardon please.

Tingling twinge, toward
conscience you come!
should i? Yes, should i, 
should have done.
Uncurl you on your couch
unfurl those darting eyes!
From trouble found no safety sweetly,
Pardon sir, pardon please. 

'Toward lands tumult
we speed! Where swallows
dare no dip, daunting they
dove before! Many eyes,
many eyes, greedy eyes
hungry eyes, await,
wrist, chest, weight on rail,
yet brave wings drop no more.'

'Should i, have no worries of birds,
of malnourished eyes, I have mine own.
Sleep I've had little lately, resting 
wrested quickly by "Should i's, 
should have done's."' - turning goes trainman,
sunken sleep regains. Swallows 
dive daunting dips, 
Pardon sir, pardon please.

5. Harvey Jr.

Bear
means took long ago;
But
still watch,
Lady lonely and her
bestial entourage of
“Best Times”; which mean
all not-too-much.

Moss, because became
synonymous synamorous
long ago. (Do not know
how it happened.)

External summer days dead,
rivulets and streams run within,
I do meets I do not,
when, when wonders why
I wade in them now.

9. Harbor Beach I

I.

One night
wishing
I could whistle
I recognized (not for the first time)
my grandfather
was a great man.

He warned me of Jack Frost,
who would call on an old black
ro-tar-y dial telephone
every time I ran into the basement.

I’m not sure what,
he’d say of me now,
or what my contemporaries
would think of him.

13. Pentwater

Blue; and a room
I was a stone
I was for Lorelei,
I was self, and self
was for me.

Ensorcell; and a room
I was a stone,
I was for Lorelei,
I was for self
and self was for me.

Eyeless; Lothario
pale, at the door
black gaze
hungry, hungry
anxiety

Peerless; Lothario
waiting at the door
black gaze
hungry, hungry
anticipator

for me.

8. Wenona (Black Matte Quaker)

Black matte Quaker
proclaims,           “If I were god.”

I wonder what he’d do,
created him I did,
I wonder what he’d do
if he could create too.

I try to write, and
Black matte Quaker
proclaims,             “If I were God,
                                   quiet,
                                   neatly cut
                                   modernist poetry.”

Black matte Quaker is not God.
But he does have a point.