William B. Deutscher

"It's a damned shame that he died all alone, "
You say with ambivalent sympathy
At one point during the course of the day,
Now funereal with the death of a man
...

Wherever it may go, this is the thing
That slips away as soon as it appears,
Desired above all else but
Not for the taking, not now or ever,
...

Cryptic, these discrete fragments of wordage
Mulled at the kitchen table during lunch
Or late in the evening prior to sleep;
Good for the brain some physicians might say,
...

Afternoon gray off the Golden Gate Bridge
Clears away now to a lingering blue
With expansive day soaked in bright sunlight;
Tourists ride through wealthy Marin County
...

Summer's evening storm
Darkens my window
With the close pressure
Of humid air
...

Jump the gun
In your own good time
Listen to the sound
Of your gray morning wind chimes
...

I'm in no great hurry still to see it all the way
And you my dooryard beauty run from me on a rainy day

I have no small trouble now or so it is I think
And you my lilac lovely catch the big policeman's wink
...

Spent fireworks, dribbling in the dark sky,
Sharp lines and specks of light melting, fading,
Washing away with a faint cracking sound
While the accommodating audience
...

Mid-March's balmy hinting wisps of warmth
Hide in a no-man's land of bracing cold
And snowy patches on the hard ground
Melt slowly; the reticent moments plod
...

High wisping clouds
Puff the blue sky
With pillowy stuff
This afternoon
...

Take it from here the silver night moon round
Only to end at the light shivered sound
Of the peep and the tweet greening fade mist
Morning quietude; peremptory kiss
...

Now you see us living one more glad day
The time piled high with expectations
Hanging like minutes in the hourly way

Full of that something our life's disarray
...

In the sun-topped day
See your eyes locked up away

In the star-shot night
See your head held high to rights
...

Rainy day afternoon cloud burst in lightning strikes
Thunder crashing up dark air in the washing water's flight

Trees shake outside my window glass in sobbing smacks of gray
The monsoon drops its floodgates wide in the drenching downpour day
...

There is nothing waiting at end of night,
Merely the onset of regular day,
Practiced routines pawned off in the light.

Dreams suddenly unknown slip out of sight,
...

We get together in a war of recognition
As the bomb goes off with a turn of ignition;
Nothing should be left to chance.

But all is and we take our risks, accordingly,
...

It's a shame
To count these years like numbers
In shadow streaking slumber

It's a shame
...

Why this the sun creeping down the valley line
Changing the windblown shrubs and plants,
Breaking up the morning in another design?

All this will wait for your life and mine
...

Snowbird high in the frozen air,
Singing on the cusp of numb despair.

Snowbird sings at the peak of his flight,
Taking off hard in a cold delight.
...

Summer sun
And fairground turn,
Afternoon edge
On the cusp of a smile.
...