The Buddha Rat

every seventeen years
staring into
the dried husk of a cicada
            (bottle rockets #26)

driving his ashes home
the sweep
of the windshield wipers
            (Mayfly #52, Winter 2012; HSA Members’ Anthology 2015)

winter branches
trembling
the weight of crows
            (bottle rockets #27)

a Cornell box—
sparrows trapped
behind the store window
            (Frogpond 36.1, Winter 2013)

same old accusations
the winter sky
staring back
            (bottle rockets #29; HSA Members’ Anthology 2014)

high noon
my own shadow
abandons me
            (The Heron's Nest online, 15.2, June 2013;
            print: Volume 15, 2013)

painting calla lilies
her brush lingers
in the shadows
            (Frogpond 37.1, Winter 2014)

parting ways
the pine needles
thick with ice
            (Acorn 32, Spring 2014)

all this talk of
renunciation
the geese are flying
            (Lilliput Review #195)

oxygen tank—
his granddaughter brings
daffodils
            (Hedgerow #127)

behind the dumpster
even a rat trap
glazed with frost
            (Frogpond 42.2, Spring/Summer 2019)