instantly angelic

the wild party of blister beetles
(plump black bodies with a matte gray stripe)
skittering in the baby beets
whose leaves have been decimated
by the infestation
_______
light cool drops of rain that land
on noses, cheeks shoulders
as we make our way up/down the bean beds
the snap and thunk
of plucking pods and dropping them into 5-gallon buckets
_______
twin-beans i call the double beans
which i have never seen before
melded together along one side then coming apart at the bottom
something comparable to the shape of a pair of pants
_______ 

how instantly angelic our voices sound
amongst the broomswishes and the shovelscrapes
when one of us (out of kit, baigz and i) holds a note
and the others tack their harmonies on
as we continue about our cleaning work
in the underground pit of the concrete cistern
whose acoustics make it irresistable to not play with noise
(and later, it is witch cackles and ghost sounds and sometime after that, beatboxing and bucket thumping)
_______
some kind of spiritual practice i say about our task at hand
of moving water with brooms and shovels and buckets
_______
the impulse to build the finest blanket fort or
the coziest nest
for one whose world is spinning fast both inside and outside
and the impossibleness of doing so
from miles away
_______
stepping out of mica’s house into the sunset 
which is everywhere
(gold and light pink laid over every possible surface including ourselves)

when things get rattle-y

the long awaited torrents
released from sky
clouds finally giffing way
after weeks of nothing but teases
how i thiank the rushes and droplets
on behalf of the kale and the asters and the cucumbers and dahlias 

_______
the thinnest film of a rainbow appearing in the east
how aeric and i both know the rainbow recipe
and keep looking out to scan sky
me at the dehydrator fussing with the cherry tomatoes and him
at the butcher block laying out hand made pasta
_______

a photo of the tappet brothers searched and sent
for when things get rattle-y and kerthumpity
_______
the sheen of silvery scales
found on karma counter
at the far end of the butcher block
_______
from the water world:

This handout picture released by Society 4 Climate Change Communication Sierra Leone, shows flooded streets in Regent near Freetown. – voice of america , day in photos

how the pallette changes

trish and i working our way down the same row
of amish paste tomatoes laughing when
we simultaneously reach for the same fruit
_______
the particular stickiness 
the tomatillo fruits leave on our fingers
while we (baigz, eric, trish and i) peel them
one after another
working our way through three five-gallon buckets
_______
the satisfaction that comes from
using the same pot of water three times
(once for steaming the carrots that will become carrot butter,
once for cooking the edamame
and once for cooking the sweet corn given to us by the mercantile due to their
overflowing bounty)
_______
i came to celebrate whatever’s found
i came to rise up, i came to get down
this song sneaking itself
into every little open spot in my brain and how i cannot help but laugh
every time it comes out
_______
how the pallette changes as the season goes on i say to carolyn
about the flowers and how these days
There’s so much red/pink/fuschia/purple
(cockscomb, asters, zinnias, globe amaranth)
these days, i have a lot of yellows carolyn says
_______
as if the sky was water and someone
dripped a few drops of food coloring (rose gold) into it
spreading from cloud to cloud until it is all
saturated in a renassaince light

spelled in spent flowers

not a good morning
but a thank you
spoken quiet and close, this
is the way the day begins
_______
there is no way of knowing
what’s next except for
moons rising and
sky sizzling with light and
words and more words and 
wheels rotating on the earth which rotates
around the sun which rises in the east and sets
in the west
_______
i joke about the patch of morning light
landing on my face, my thingh
quoting my own poem saying
that is me saying hey, good morning
while providing pro-tips of how
to safely exit and descend
the loft (also referred to as a treehouse)
_______
dyke-alike she says as we walk the bright white gravel
by chance both donning 
a blue shirt and a purple skirt
_______
swinging the front porch door open
for the final day to gather
around breakfast at the big table 
picking up the batons from our realy of running jokes
and heading off around the curves of the track
_______
the fucking question ‘yes, but what can writing/what can poems do?!’ i say when answering 
the what i’m leaving behind portion of my favorite transition trifecta of: 
one thing you’re taking with you
one thing you’re leaving behind
and one thing you’re looking forward to
_______
applause filing the room as i hand out
glitter-meteor-streaked certificates
honoring each recipient
as a real writer 
and how we shake hands
the gesture a joke
in a room of such intimacy
walking ourselves across the imaginary stage
from where we came from
to where we are heading
_______
comedically draped/position in the sagging hammock amongst hammocks
after the flurry of see you laters
we shuffle the deck to find out what’s next
since the only answer i had to the question was we get on those bikes and ride
the cards revealing
the bike and fireworks of
the eight of keys and the mystery/possibility/systme of the code 
_______
the two pages of brought to light fluttering
in the wind 
fastened to the porch with a half gallon mason jar
containing two rocks
(one blueish one red-brown)
_______
the word YES spelled
in spent flowers
remaining in the space that housed
a moonwatcher
a star-gasper
a lightning-beholder
a big cat
_______
hot enough in oklahoma to wash our sins away
i write down this lyric playing on the country station
and maybe it’s not so much the lyric
but how right a choice
the country station feels at this moment

million dollar moon

the thunk of a fruit
landing hard onto the metal roof
of the sugar shack
a pear  jennifer says
a pear!  i exclaim not even knowing
a pear tree lived down here
______
peter telling the story of toulouse
the jack russel/rat terrier
magnificent companion
who had learned how to use the autumatic window control
and then there was the time toulouse was trapped
in a running car
and how peter tried to talk to him through the window saying
now, toulouse! now is the time to do the window trick!
______
me going on about how ridiculous
a poetry contest is
for wording it as the best poem
(the best poem will receive the $500 prize)
and jenafr chimes in saying
the best poem for being in grief
might not be the best poem
for celebrations
and then we go on
to call the moon coming up
(the orange sky a sky a fourth grader might draw
for a halloween picture)
the best moon and award it
its $500 prize
_______

the last glimpse of the moon i say
as we pause in its still-rising light
at the edges of sandhill cemetary
our bikes at our sides

for imaginary explosions

the calm/repetition/groundedness
of bringing canful by canful of water
to the young chinese cabbage,
the purple fall cabbage,
the asters, the zinnias, the dahlias, bachelor’s buttons, cockscomb,
globe amaranth and snapdragons
while just feet away
a crew of frenzied kids shout names for their war vessels
and scream for backup by the swingset
firing imaginary bullets and kerblamming out the sounds for imaginary explosions

_______
still warm from the deyhdrator trays
passining sun-dried sungold tomatoes
one by one
into henri’s (age 2) small hand

family because we are

walking through the thinnest mist
this morning
and loving the grey sky above the green summer-leafed-out trees
and the little bits of water
visible everywhere (near/far) in the air
_______
standing on cool ranch porch
and finding that the bat has returned to its roost after a day of absence
while mama cat looks up at me from where she weaves between my feet and as
ashby the cat approaches on the path
i say something like oh good, we’re all together again
as if we are family
because, in fact, we are
_______

the second bouquet i’ve brought
to a second friend
in two days
which makes me think something like
come for the pollination
and stay for the a-beautiful-thing-to-give-to-people-so-that-you-never-show-up-empty-handed bonus