Robert Ronnow

Today is Sunday and I'm going to the ocean
or maybe not. Definitely not doing the laundry
or maybe I will. Moss and even a small tree
grow in the rotten stubs of the pier pilings.
...

Late in life I struggle against my insignificance
When I should enjoy the freedom from performance
      before an audience.
Applause is happiness but if they withhold applause,
...

Rereading the poems of others
and my own. Community across
time and graves. What's left
exceeds in significance
...

Suppose there is no life in space, just us. And we inhabit
      Mars,
air condition Venus. Hold family barbecues, national
      holidays
...

My face tells me nothing. Not nothing but nothing useful,
      the
complications of ageing humorously but not exactly how
      to avoid
...

Spring peepers
stop peeping. A satellite
crosses sky. One peeper keeps peeping
in time to the satellite blinking, an eye.
...

Having not done the things I wanted to do
and the things I've done not being what I wanted to do
I sit here looking at lichen on the north side of trees.
...

1

At peace perhaps too much
a fine Spring rain
...

As air and leaf litter are substrate for the bird.
And what makes a human. Separation from the
      substrate.
Believing the substrate and the subject are separately
...

Sun and traffic - day economy.
Six a.m. drive to plywood mill. Too tired
to be angry. Each day a step
toward death. What is being accomplished? The
...

RNA or DNA polymerase, an enzyme, protein,
      attracted to
promoter molecules in the polypeptide chain causing a
      zipper
...

Zero.
By which nothing is divided.
No zero
no negative
...

The teacher dies having made her small contribution
to the colonization of other planets by motivating
a boy who would otherwise be a coal miner to become
a rocket engineer.
...

Almost Spring but only February
almost February but only January
only January but almost March.
...

There is no religion in meditation
but it's worth visiting with your mind
in the morning. What will you find?
...

Bright and polite
kids. Deferential
squirrels. Leaders of
leaders. Each man
...

While I'm reading a poem about it on the previous page
the girls come over to visit their boyfriends and dance
in high shoes and perfume. Their legs are strong and
      their voices high.
...

Peter has gotten a new job
as a bookstore clerk from one to ten
down by the river
in a sunny little house.
...

A man and a woman are living
in a jungle. The man has lived there
all his life but the woman is new
so she's scared. The jungle is full
...

To presume to write to someone about courage
and not complaining, don't importune or make dying
      people cry.
I've always said Leave me alone with autumn.
...