WHAT I NEED TO WRITE A POEM (for Alan Wright)

to be bored.
a keyboard.
wine poured.

something wrong
or right. the words
to a song, a fight,
a free day or
a long night.

mostly just to sit still
and write.

HOW IT FEELS

you are an old man or any age
and life is the iced-over pond
you're standing on, spring
winking darkly nearby;

and you're holding
high a dandelion, past
its prime, blowing doomed
canopied seeds

into the firestorm
that's taken over
the shore like nothing
you've ever seen before.