"For Whomsoever"

 For Whomsoever 

 

I hope you have the chance to do nothing. 

You can stop here, heed no further. 

 

Or nestle between beginnings/endings 

of wording: there         there         there

 

It’s the way an elder consoles the hurt child. 

There, there, there. 

 

Bringing him close, bringing her close, 

into the nexus of an us:

 

us understanding, us having been there. 

There, there. It will get better. 

 

When you’re grown, making a living, 

I hope you have the chance to do nothing. 

 

To take it in, the medicine of air.

To feel held by the air. 

 

~ LCMH

Something for Autumn

Leaves in Couplets

Some would rather plead than leave,

lack etiquette

of

fallen

leaves.

~           ~           ~           ~           ~           ~    

What happened to the raking of the Rake? Such soliloquies

lose cadency by the Blowers of the leaves.

~           ~           ~           ~           ~           ~

I’d like to bask in the befores, afores, the eves,

and idle        between        the turning leaves.

~           ~           ~           ~           ~           ~

                     ~ LCMH

Hardship

The Pill

If I have permission

to speak of your condition

… something left in a bottle sealed

on ocean’s spill of messages revealed

only to you; the rest of us elbowed

out of the way, the rest of us bowled

over when your pills were thrown

away, still in their containers. My phone
jarring as it rang, like a foghorn
announcing a certitude forlorn.
Torn between cajoling, correcting;
conversation akin to a gagging
on the revelatory pill

… of your careening will.

~ LCMH

 Also appears in "Next Line, Please" of The American Scholar:

 https://theamericanscholar.org/the-pill/#.WRxvhmWTRBY

Poetry Quilt

The Million-Line Poem of Tupelo Press is a project of collaboration; of harmonizing voices into a patchwork of poetry, couplet by couplet. Happy to be one of the voices with,

"Lullabies course in our veins,
in vain?" 

Visit the site to read more: https://www.tupelopress.org/the-million-line-poem/

Cinematic

Contributors to David Lehman's "Next Line, Please" went to the movies, in couplets. How did it end? In an ode, titled Lucky You:

https://theamericanscholar.org/ode-to-woody-allen/#.V7dg3WWTRBY