Final Respects

Flower-smothered hearse
headlight-lit caravan
in its funeral wake

playing a memory chord
my father’s cortege
two score years ago

final homecoming
to boyhood memory
its cotton fields unpicked

returning simply
to family’s embrace
seven generations deep

country vehicles
pulling aside
to honor his passing

added benediction
from friend and kin
for shared earthly minutes.

So Much I Used to Know

Names of plants
stars and constellations
capitals of the states

tropical Hawaiian flowers
I cannot retrieve now
in Puerto Rico

Orion’s companions
or Pleiades and Hyades
which is which cluster

Montpelier, Augusta, Boise
Albuquerque too
no, no, no, Santa Fe

so much lost
facts, faces, yesterday’s dinner
in memory’s dimming haze

replaced perhaps
with better knowledge
of how much we cannot know.

Two Best Birds

Reclusive creatures
choosing me
for acquaintance

paddling along
Sanibel’s edges
in quiet trance

mangrove cuckoo
staring back
from sheltered branch

slender, regal shape
its indicator tail
long, white-spotted

then sitting parked
in montane forest
with absent thoughts

glancing upward
Puerto Rican Tody
on tree’s under parts

dazzling green
lemon yellow flanks
stunning bright red bib

these exotic looks
quite a gift
to nondescript me.

Clapping at Sunset

Clapping at sunset
gratitude
for another day

bar bell ringing
cheerful toasts
join the chorus

anxiety-free
this daily ritual
for us moderns

no nightly fear
some thoughtless gods
may intervene

dispatch the sun
to some different place
in the universe.