Death #4 (Silhouettes) 

Four a.m. and just past
the witching hour
no rustling leaves
no owls calling

air conditioner runs like horses
jacking up the utility bill
will the President cancel
part of my loan?

the garden porch light
rests in abeyance
tantalizing moths and beetles
no whip-poor-will perched

morning songbirds and anoles
take their rightful places
lacking given names, they
become interchangeable and generic

[RK, 7/30/22]

Death #6

Those old fogey leaf silhouettes
hunter green and dusty pale blue
solid black and sunset orange
aspen yellow and purple sky

here on 20^th Street and Central
my mentor’s hillside Arizona patio
miasma of the sub-tropical zone
saying, fuck you, we go on forever

[RK, 8/13/22]