Leaving

staying in place
or placing one foot
behind the other

placating the confusion
or opting to remain
in the melee

recording the rearrangement
of dinner table placeholders
and dance cards

[RK, 6/26/21]

Passive-Aggressive Chess Set

The ploy, the plum.
The plumb, the play.
The geometric plane.

The punishment, the prayer.
The peach, the pendulum.
The praying mantis.

The pushcart, the platitude.
The panacea, the passenger.
The house plant.

[RK, 6/26/21]

The Jigsaw Puzzle

1. Analytic

every box is incomplete
I find missing pieces
in unlikely places
chewed, waterlogged, frayed
scientifically mutated
into straight-edged geometric shapes
unfit for original intentions

2. Creative

triangles, heptagons, rhomboids
the occasional dodecahedron
effortlessly arranged into
new ways of seeing
illuminating through
altered states of perception

[RK, 6/26/21]

Echo

shallow coastal waters, acres of sea grass
the horizon is a line on a scrim and clouds
remind me of textbook images from art school
en plein air Impressionism, the natural world
scrunched onto 30 by 40 centimeter canvases
elusive, attentive, alliterative
lazy clinging memories evaporate
above the Gulf of Mexico

[RK, 6/26/21]

Map

I could not imagine your movements
through the flat Midwest
wheat and corn fields
weathered brick red barns
elusive prairie light
deciduous hometown trees and cattails

pastel and linear paper maps
scrolled through my mind, and
took the edge off waiting, wondering,
and why-ing

[RK, 6/26/21]