Without Gravity
What are you thinking? he asks,
using the strange beauty nature gave him
to turn the ordinary words into monuments
to a time of acorns and blue mussels.

I want something fierce but find only biting things
and a mild chill.
A rain without gravity begins to fall,
altering the trajectory plotted by bees.
The leaves also return to their tremulous twigs.
Even the winds wind back up,
which were caught on white thorns.

What could I say that would make him come?
I mean, what could I say that would enter him
and stay?

Would you like some raisins, some cheese?
I delve into the pack
that’s been weighing me down,
pulling me back,
causing me grief,
but without which I would be without
raisins and without cheese.

I don’t have my needs, after all.
I have to say this to someone who can’t get by without
saying, Me neither. It’s the long-
standing question posed by short trees.
I don’t have my fruits or my passions, he tells me,
not now, not anymore.
I left them on the floor.

Good News / Bad News
What is bad news?
Everybody knows what bad news is!

What is good news?
Please! Do you need an example?

Let’s say the sun is shining. Is that good news or bad news?
It depends, of course. If the sun has been shining day after day and everything is parched and dying, another day of sunshine can’t be good news.

But usually the sun shining is good news?
If you told me the sun was shining I would think it was good news, usually.

Let’s say you find out the sore on your skin is going to eat into your flesh and you will die in pain in a few days.
That’s too easy. It is bad news! Suppose you had said, There is a sore on your skin.

Could I imagine that good news?
At least it’s just a sore. A sore won’t kill you. Suppose I was studying skin sores. It would give me a firsthand example to study. Would that be a good thing?

Is an occasion for study, a learning experience, a good thing?
It depends. Does it kill you?

Is your death always bad news?
Can one imagine when it isn’t?

If you told me I was shortly to die I would consider that bad news.
Can you imagine when you wouldn’t?

I don’t like my imagination, sometimes.
It’s not always good to use it.

But isn’t it usually?
Nobody said that. Some things are typically bad, and it’s hard to think up ways they wouldn’t be. Some things are so easily thought good it’s a trick to think about when they might not be.

Everything’s relative?
Everything exists in relation to other things. Relations can be unfriendly. But there they are, part of the story.

I prefer good news.
Why wouldn’t you?

Vacation Rental
It is out in the middle of nowhere.
Very rustic.
The pictures make it look nice.
But don’t expect too much.
It is in walking distance of town.
And the beach.
There are taro fields all around.
A piece of old Hawaii.
It does have the swimming pool.
There are some missing tiles.
Because it is in the taro fields
you can’t fully drain the pool
to replace the tiles because
once you’ve drained the water
the pool rises
out of the ground.
Floating up out of the ground like that,
it’s difficult to fix.
The frogs are nice.
There are chickens, too.
Running around loose.
And nene,
that’s the Hawaiian goose.
Right down the drive there’s a Farmers’ Market.
Very convenient.
The Farmers’ Market is on Saturdays.