The Fall

Leaving the liquor store

one arm clutching the bourbon

two wine bottles in the other

my shoe caught the cement

and I landed face-first

on the edge of the concrete curb

Thanks to my protection

the bottles survived the crash landing

My unguarded face, not nearly as well

My spouse was in shock

Volunteers came running

helped me to my feet

My glasses, broken in two, lay on the ground

My face a bloody mess

At home I looked in the mirror

A ragged cut on the bridge of my nose

Bloody abrasions on my nose, cheek, and lip

Soon dark black bruising circled both eyes

Anxious, in pain, a mess

but after three days I decided I would be o.k. 

Even so, my connection to the world feels changed

Life is more precarious

More subject to the vagaries of random chance 

I find myself walking self-consciously

Apprehensive, vulnerable

My nose and eyes have nearly recovered

but my psyche is progressing more slowly 

Stuff We Learned As Boys

I did my childhood in the 1940s

World War Two and its aftermath 

My dad left our home for the Navy 

But I still learned a lot about being a man

The most dramatic lesson

Men either kill or get killed 

We observed this, of course, in the Movietone News 

Ships sinking, planes on fire, corpses in a trench 

But also at the Saturday matinee

Swordsmen, gangsters, pirates 

G-men, Apaches, pygmies with poison darts   

We children spent our off hours playing military games 

Or cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians

I owned a six-shooter, a luger, a .45, a rifle with a bayonet

A hunting knife, a jackknife, a Bowie knife, a machete

Loads of cap pistols, water pistols, a machine gun that shot ping pong balls 

Not to mention my bow and arrows

When we weren’t busy shooting at each other

We played contact sports

Basketball, football, boxing, wrestling

Determining who could triumph over whom

Who were winners, who were losers

Men, we concluded, don’t show emotion

Tough guys dish out pain and can take it

Being weak is the worst sin of all

Looking back, this was not ideal preparation 

for marriage, family, parenthood, friendship

Probably it was useful for pro football or the army

Creatures From Our Youth: Six Shadorma*

The Elusive Pine Snake

Six feet long

Lazing in the sun

Slinks along

Ribs so strong

Pine snake’s jaunt has just begun

Never captured one

The Mosquito’s Demise

Thief in flight

Searching for red blood

Finds its site

Poised to bite

I smack that bandit, Whack!  Thud!

Messy end to fight 

The Dog’s Lesson 

Porcupine

Nests high in the oak

Set to dine

Twigs and vine

Gives our dog a painful poke

Quills in nose, huge whine 

The Fearsome Snapping Turtle 

Jaws of steel

Swims past us at dusk 

So surreal 

Fear we feel

Ancient creature, massive, brusque

Eyes us for his meal

Bloodsucker Invasion 

On my shin

My legs or my toes

Breaks the skin

Sucks blood in

Then it hides out in my clothes

Much to my chagrin

The Bat Scare 

Flies through room 

Our mom calls for aid 

Dive and zoom

Grab the broom 

Get him, Steve is unafraid 

Swift bat meets his doom 

*Similar to a haiku, a shadorma is a six-line poem with 3, 5, 3, 3, 7, and 5 syllables per line.  It can be rhymed or unrhymed.  

Henri Magritte, The Choice : An Ekphrastic Peom

Our acquaintance, Everyman, is readying for the day

The accoutrements spread out on the rack

A bowler hat for sun or breeze

His trusty umbrella to fend off showers

And a choice of faces for his round of activities

On the left, a scowling, angry self

Eyebrows arched, mouth turned downward 

A face to instill fear in his underlings 

Or express disgust at the politicians’ vagaries 

To the right, a face more benign

Lips curling upward into a smile

An expression more kindly, more inclusive

But also a face that constrains its wearer to niceties  

Everyman vacillates back and forth 

The faces, of course, are not his alone

They reside on the rack

Standardized, stereotypic, available to all 

On loan from society for one’s temporary use

Like the red bikes behind the grocery store   

We can borrow whatever faces we prefer 

But care must be taken 

Faces we wear determine who we are in the world 

The power and the pitfall of the mask