FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT

why do i search so hard
for meaning
when i'm somewhere
up in the air?

why do i feel
the most self-aware
when i am neither
here nor there?

why is it the spaces between
places with nothing
underneath me

that seem to inspire
poetic reverie?

WINTER AS A VERB (for Tom Hess)

he's only in love
with winter as a verb;
he finds snow "absurd."

to be wet and cold
and on top of that
old is "for the birds."

and when he reads this
he'll say, "that son of a gun
really got me."

SERIOUSLY (for Kevin Eves)

we yearn
to be

free of earthly
conventions like gravity
and humility

and yet
we submit

to aggravations
like punctuation

willingly.

BURNING

these days the blank page always
begs questions. for me these

revolve around existence
and meaning: why this?

and in light of that
now what is to be

done?

and answers never
seem to arrive

just as planets
keep safe distance
from the sun.

MATURITY

as the day of our life moves
past noon, and then the light
begins fading into

night -- the time for chasing
what we hoped might
sustain us gives way
to embracing

what remains.