Twofaced

 Two faced

John Clare Stokes 

Said she’d forget her head

If it wasn’t attached

She’d go out without it

We’d find it

Leave it by her door

When she returned

What a day

 It’s such the day 

You want to call a cousin

Possibly in Mississippi 

say

Come out from all that misery

Join me

And have some iced tea

With a lemon slice

In the cool shade 

Of Wednesday 

It will be nice 

Want say one heard

Just listen as the Cardinal calls

The dragonflies light on the lilies

The biddies made haste to keep up

The mother mockingbird makes her way

To the nest under construction 

Later

Over the pines

We can watch the waxing moon rise

Maybe catch the Atlanta to Orlando

Pass through Tycho crater

We shall both be Stoked

See

SEERiously 

We grow weary with the ones

Who can only see what is before them

They who find boringly unprofitable 

The long sitting and staring

At the sun upon a blade of grass

Counting the infinity

Shimmering through with 

Every breeze moving it slightly

Yes, in your world of weights

And measures

We could have been anything

We wanted to be

But then, to your eyes

It wouldn't include worthless

Poetry. 

Sleeping in church

 Eutychus 

In my flesh

I am dull of hearing

My eyes heavy

They close

And into dream

I come

Falling 

Falling

Falling

Helpless to awake

I hit the earth

I die

Then enters the word

Arise

Arise

Arise

Awake

To the 

Third floor sanctuary 

I'm taken

All a mystery

In this new life

I partake

Cast away

 Fair Havens

Had we heeded

The great storm warnings

Gentle winds deceiving

Luring us from safety harbor

Calm waves lapping

We may have stayed

This side of the breakers

Too far the drift

Too frail the skiff

Rock a bye 

Castaway

Through yours

 Through yours

I try and watch you

Carrying them

And try to imagine

What the holding

Is to you

And the weight of them

If they burden you

Or lift you beyond joy

Mamma’s rain gauge

 Mamma’s rain gauge 

On the Hill at the close of Mother’s Day

Mamma would have commented it won’t rain today

She always said it would when the cows were lowing

We certainly miss mamma her cattle knowing.

The lane brings

 The lane brings

The lane takes

By morning we check 

The sand

Perchance your tracks

Were crossing 

Thinking traps we set

But we are no longer hunters

We gave up the pursuit

Long ago

Now we just wait

In patient shade

In expectation 

Of your tracks seeing

In Florida sand.

Robber

 Robber

I come to take

It doesn't matter

Joy

Peace

Trust

Faith

Love

I do not rank

I take them all

Robber fly

Front yard

Closing gates

 Closing gates

Johnclarestokes 

My daddy always told me to close the gates

Behind me

In my haste I often would not close them

Securely

Allowing things to escape

Things to enter

Lately all my gates have been swinging open

The escaping continuing

In my haste forgetting

The lesson daddy tried to teach me

Forever orbiting

 Forever Orbiting

With the refund from the

Acme Deluxe Time Machine

I ordered a Satellite

Forever orbiting

It wasn't the latest in

Satellite

Spy technology

One of those Sputnik era

Machines

But it was good enough

To read the license plates

From outer space

Good ole Nikon glass

And metal.

I set the coordinates on

40.6831 North

141.3690 East

And sat up til four AM

Every morning

Perchance I would catch

You passing

The wife said there is

The Internet and Skype

And FaceTime what are

You thinking?

I do not know 

It seemed such a good bargain 

Much better than that

Acme time machine.

Legacy

 Legacy

The guilty old rector

Knowing all the years

It was all about the money

In a moment of honesty

Asked if I'd speak at my

Own funeral

He confessed 

He really didn't know me

And he was frankly weary

Of saying

What a legacy

What a legacy

To strangers families

I said it sounds good

So I asked,

what's in it for me?

Why, I'll preach you into

Heaven knowingly

For free.