April drizzle

The last sliver of the moon

gleams through a thin spot

in the clouds. I was hoping

to see the arrangement

of Luna, Saturn and Venus

that would form a celestial

smiley face, an emoji sent

from our solar family.

Doesn’t seem promising for

freeing the Painted Lady butterflies

that have emerged from their

chrysalises in the mesh cage

that came with the mail order kit.

They began as small caterpillars

in plastic cups filled with

some kind of medium and food.

The kit also included a shallow dish

with a cotton pad and a packet

of C&H sugar like the ones

on the table at a restaurant.

Just add water for the butterflies

when they emerge.

And they did. With their lovely

black and rusty orange topside wings

and the undersides dappled

in various shades of grey and beige

like rococo marbled endpapers.

A fitting emblem of resurrection

which was the reason to get the kit.

They flap their wings,

making fluttering taps

that attract the rapt attention

of the calico cat who sits

in the closest chair for hours

in full I’m-a-leopard mode.

The day isn’t suitable

for delicate beings to fly.

The splat of rain drops

harvested from the drizzle

falls from the eaves

onto the leaves of the

camellias that crowd

the garden stairs.

A Tesla SUV

hissing like a cobra

zooms past St Patrick’s

up wet King Street

into Eden Lane.

A carillon rings out

the summons to the five o’clock

Evening Mass as Pope Francis

lies in state. Requiem in Pace,

Francis, please indulge

my Latin. Three years

of classes in high school

and I seldom get to use it.

A carillon for the papillon?

That would be fitting.

I look out the window

hoping to see the sun finally

emerge but there is none.

However, I spot one small egg

abandoned on the railing.

Nut hatch, flycatcher,

bushtit, junco or wren?

For another day or two,

I can feed them more sugar

before releasing them to forage

between the Amarylis buds spearing

towards the sky. To suck from

the riot of jasmine along the street

or to sip the Fresia’s sweet nectar.

Perhaps they prefer Cape Marguerites.

Straight up, no salt.

San Juan Batista

The scent of jasmine

floated up from the strip

beside the street.

The hopeful or faithful

placed coins next to

the bronze statue’s feet

Some lovers had carved

their initials and hearts

on the paddle-shaped

lobes of prickly pear cactus

outside the mission garden’s

walls leaving grey scars

to commemorate or

demonstrate their love

however fleeting or true.

Good Friday, 2021

No regrets

No egrets this morning

hunting in the marsh.

So one brave toad

dared to croak. Hope.

I was walking along

the path converted

from rail to trail.

On my way to pick up

a second copy

of one of

my favorite books:

ninety-nine stories

of God. It’s

probably not

what you think.

That’s the fun part.

Space tornadoes

An eye aimed on our galaxy,

the most powerful and complex

radio telescope ever built on earth,

the Atacama Large Millimeter/

submillimeter Array -let’s call her ALMA-

has detected slender filaments,

a kind of space tornado,

near the massive black hole

at the center of the Milky Way.

The tornadoes contain silicon oxide,

whose structure is shaped by shock waves,

and organic molecules such as methanol,

methyl cyanide, and  cyanoacetylene.

A likely means for these compounds

to be efficiently distributed throughout

that neighborhood corner

of the Universe we call the Milky Way.

Is that as beautiful to you as it is to me?

Like the spiral shell of a snail

or the songs of whales and nightingales?

Is that a leaf blower that I hear

outside the the kitchen window,

or the echo of a Tijuana radio station

between Howling Wolf's Smokestack Lightnin'

before the needle drops on Little Richard

telling Lucille if she won't do it her sister will.

Maybe that's the howl of space tornadoes.

Saturn devouring his son

Does the monster
feel remorse?
Or does he eat it,
ground with salt
and black pepper,
on his meat?

Morning

There are no

sidewalk sleepers

in this town.

Maybe someone hiding

in the bushes until

some dog-walker

or jogger is concerned

and motivated enough

to call the authorities

at the Police station.

Perhaps while sipping

a sidewalk latte

or decaf cappuccino.

Even dogs have parks.

The red sun rises

over all of us,

the feral and the

housed, alike.

what sparkles on moonless nights?

Round and round

the mulberry bush

the monkey chased

the weasel… Is the bush

the same as the tree?

Like the ones they planted

across the street from

751 Appleberry Drive

where the only time

I saw my mother cry

one night, sitting against

the trunk of a mulberry tree.

They grow really fast

which explains why they

were planted next to the walkway.

To me, they were trash trees,

if you tried to climb them

the branches broke off,

even the the thick ones.

I found out later they have

the leaves that silk caterpillars eat.

And that redeemed them.

I like silk. I have some made

from their lives and efforts.

I have eaten the caterpillars

after they were steamed out

of the cocoons from which

silk thread is spun.

They taste like potatoes.

I don’t know why Mom

left the house that night,

except that it had something

to do with Dad. She wouldn’t say.

Just told me that she was okay,

go back home. I didn’t go home,

I went out into the dark schoolyard

and looked up at the stars.

I could see a lot more of them

away from the streetlights

and houselights. Starlight

and the black silhouettes

of oaks, bay laurels, and madrones

the kind of trees whose branches

don’t break when you climb them.