The darkening
Comes
Whether
We will
Have it or not.

Beckons us
To come along

Brushes light
Aside with right
And falls
More quickly
Than we ever
Think
It will.

In night, then,
Every wish
A prayer
For conscience deep,

Or Hamlet’s sleep.

Mary Catherine Coolidge copyright 2010

Civilities

Lingering

On dating attorneys — poetry as complaint

Moon-howling Mama

In the dark
The crows assemble

Unhunching shoulders
With glossy shrugs,
Beaks sussing out
Some unwelcome things
Among them.

Half-opening wings,
Not preening
Just quiet fluffing
And subtle shiftings
Of weight;
Almost imperceptible shufflings
In the order of things.

Readying themselves;
Maybe steadying,

For day and light
Then flight.

Copyright 2010 MC Coolidge

I dance around you
like a firefly –
caught
in the hand
of June;
made wary
by a past
that haunts
the present,
and fuels civilities.

I flail and fall
through impolitic coupling –
as alone
then
as later;
listening to the blues
or meeting your friends,
I murmur civilities.

I feel most honest
when you sleep –
your eyes closed
mine wide open,
holding my own breath
to listen to yours.

It’s those intrepid explorers
I’m wondering about –
the ones who swath
their way
through the overgrowth
through undoing incivility,
shrugging off the pounding din
staring down the dead-yellow eyes
of all those
jungle-hungry hearts.

Her hand,
a small one
according to standards
she’s never been able to meet

Says, “Look — she is here;
let the inquisition
begin.”

(If she’s told one lie,
she’s told ten.)

Fingertips poised
ready to draw
true blue
then drop à point
to be read
once bled.

The vellum almost
an admonishment:
She had better tell the truth.

Insulated as it is
By its cushion
Of double walls;
Protected as it is
By ribs standing sentry;
So far from the brain –

The heart lingers. Read more »

Romantic love

Grasplessness

Intoxicates me Read more »

William Wordsworth sets us straight on a few things.

The world is too much with us

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! Read more »

For Dr. Gerald J. Zinfon, Professor of English and Poet

Champagne, home-grown tomatoes
and peppers, angel hair pasta,
California strawberries with
vanilla ice cream; Read more »

Sleep Intoxication

Inside:

I drink my sleep
In big waves
Of weightless
Thirst

Random lovers
Strap themselves in; Read more »