Ring around the Year
Once rutty, now flawless,
heavy snow whitewashes the field
under the New-Year moon.
*
Pale on a white silk tablecloth,
condolence cards.
*
A pipe organ’s fading notes—
I escape the theater,
the moon an amber lodestar.
*
Pralines, pumpkin-spiced latte,
political flyers litter the walkway.
*
Late for a conference keynote,
cab after cab passes me by,
each preferring different customers.
*
Through the park, four women arm-in-arm—
an after-hours defense strategy.
*
Along with a stream of cars
glutting the Mackinac Bridge—
a sea of pedestrians.
*
Bees flood my dreams,
singing all will be our beehive.
*
Policing the county line—
three Albino boxers.
Every bicyclist hounded.
*
Luminaria guide the mourners,
more talk on gun control.
*
The lake sheds its ice.
Crows circle in and out of mist
over the now-exposed deer.
*
A human-sized bird cage—
we sit in it, wishing we could sing.