It is inevitable that one month comes to an end
so another can start, whether you’re ready for this to happen
or not.

An artificial division–28 days, 29, 30, or 31, so what?–
comes to feel natural, like the ribs that mark off
a single stalk of celery, or

those blasted sunflower seeds or cells in the honeycomb
(they’re trending now, Fibonacci numbers and, in general,
heavy breathing over the beauty of math).

How many plums are in your bag?
How many years
does each of us have?

One month slides into another, melting, indistinguishable,
at least for the last few days of one and first few days
the next.

But I can’t deny that sometimes I’ve heard the door shut,
the sun meeting the earth as softly, as undeniably as
eyelid touches cheek.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the PAD Chapbook Challenge, Day 30. Prompt: an inevitable poem.

The news about the little tree outside my window
is that its leaves don’t so much change as shrivel
and die in place. This is not picturesque, but
it seems fitting, and cardinal pairs seem to like
little shrivel trees up against power lines
as well as any other trees. Maybe more than some.

I don’t have a favorite tree, but this one comes close.

The news about this plastic bowl of snack mix
is that I really shouldn’t be eating it. This is
the season of constant eating. In theory, I bought it
to support my daughter’s Girl Scout troop, but really,
it was so she could earn a patch shaped like an otter,
with a message about the benefits of physical activity.

I agree with this message. In theory.

The news about this tablecloth is that it’s beginning
to crack and will probably need to be replaced. It is
oilcloth, from Mexico, I think — though we bought it
at the fancy kitchen store on 53rd. This was the day
that I almost mandoline-sliced my fingertip into the
salad; we patched my finger and served the salad.

We had company. What could we do?

The news about this Betty Crocker cookbook is that
I’m a little disappointed in its selection of pies. I’m
on a mission to become a better pie baker over the course
of the next year. The problem is, I’m not sure what I want
in a pie, exactly, or why I want pie to become easy.
My mother made pie like it was almost nothing.

My mother, deftly paring apples and smoking.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the PAD Chapbook Challenge, Day 28. Prompt: “_____ News.”

I don’t think those foxes are ever coming back
with that baby.

They had that look about them, you know?
Like a couple of foxes that have always wanted

a baby and couldn’t have one of their own

for whatever reason. I’m not an expert
on fox fertility and other mysteries in the night.

We all couple and uncouple in various ways,
and wish for things.

I imagine it’s the same for foxes.
They are, after all, mammals.

Even now, that baby could be tucked up safe,
drinking fox milk,

wondering what it’s all about,
or how this life began.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the PAD Chapbook Challenge, Day 24. Prompt: “I’ll Be _______”

Alone is the moment when
you lie diagonally across
your queen-sized bed,
the first big purchase
in your adult life.

You sleep behind a shoji screen
in a makeshift bedroom carved from
a living room in a graystone apartment
that you share with two housemates.

Your internship ended, and you
didn’t go home. Now, you’re temping,
and then comes your very shitty
first real job.

You have bought yourself
a box turtle, a lizard,
and two tree frogs so

you’ll have someone to take care of.
Everything else dies, but the turtle
is a survivor. A year from now, your
boyfriend will move here, you’ll both
move to the other side of town.

Two years from now, you’ll get married.
He’ll love your turtle, too, make ramps
for him all around the room while
you’re at work, at your second,
and much less shitty job.

But for now, you are alone.
You are with people (and a turtle),
but you are alone. You are 24 years old,
and really, you slept better on
your friend’s couch, when you were

still between things, trying to make a plan.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the PAD Challenge, Day 23. Prompt: an alone poem.

from their eternal
houndage.

Who wants to
slink around junkyards
and into the woods

if there are other ways
to be a good boy or good girl?

Who loves the scent of blood,
shoe leather, fingernails?

Release the hounds,
and they will laze on couches,
chase rabbits — not men,
not dead women and children —
while they sleep. Forever?
For dog years?

At least until
a scent drifts in,
like ringing a doorbell,
or a call on the red phone:
Hello, hound.

You are a hound forever;
you can never be released.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the PAD Chapbook Challenge, Day 22. Prompt: a release poem.

Unless you go too far
in your catamaran
and fall off

the face of the earth,
drifting like a balloon,
a star, a star-shaped balloon.
You never meant to disprove

a theory that makes the world
go round. You never meant to
take us back to the Dark Ages,
when we feared dragons and

edges, all the perils
that await us when we
push off from shore.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the PAD Chapbook Challenge, Day 21. Prompt: Write about a direction on the compass.

But someone like me always says
there’s no explanation for any of it,
nothing owed to us and nothing to be
expected, that life is a random bag
of facts and occurrences, many of them
ugly and completely unjust, because
there is no justice, no traffic cop.
Sometimes I really hate myself.
Sometimes I sound so smug, so much
like others of my type, the clichés
tumbling out of my mouth before I can
call them back. The truth is, we all
think in stereotypes and patterns.
I am no different. Neither are you.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Catching up. Last one for tonight. PAD Challenge, Day 16. Prompt: an explanation.