Author Archives: sputterpub

Cause and Effect

Remember when the sun appeared each day?When sky at 2 p.m. was nothing strange?I understand the cause with full dismay:the term for it of late is climate change.We saw it coming 60 years ago.My father gave me Silent Spring to … Continue reading

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Fourth Grade

We chanted “I am rubber. You are glue,”when someone playground-called pejoratives.“Your words bounce off of me and stick to you.”And that’s a clue, when comprehending Trump.We’ve learned he won’t say anything that’s true,but also understand the names he callsare properly … Continue reading

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Extended Family Status

Is this our future now? Will we contendwith summer fires till all fuel has burned?Will conflagration make our weather bend,or weather rend our fortunes overturned?In San Francisco, Berkeley, San Rafael,in Oakland, Portland, Talent, air is hell.The visuals are noxiously obscured … Continue reading

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Sunday Puzzles

A dozen years I rarely sat outside;the space was broken rock and rotting wood.But then I spent a fortune, modifiedthe cottage, and installed a redwood deck.I contemplated furniture. I trieda chair, but soon I opted for a benchand table, where … Continue reading

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Accommodation

They roomed together 50 years agoin Berkeley, at the height of its unrest.They both liked drugs, but one of them was slowto move and opted for cocaine as best;the other raced a lot in legs and brain,and liked how marijuana … Continue reading

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High Horse

I love your love and value your respectbut honestly, your vehemence is dire.I need your ears and heart – I don’t expectdefensive bold assertions, and your irebecomes a force that forces me to pause.It’s like I never own my own … Continue reading

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Reactivity

I had career ideas when I was small,but couldn’t zero in on one to tell.I wrote and read a lot, as I recall,but knew those loves would never pay me well.My English major let me read some moreand write enough, … Continue reading

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Time Lapse

I wrote this poem a week ago, when Iwas moving slowly, woefully depressed.I woke again to ashen air, white sky,and blue within. Of course I was distressedby politics, infection, how we’ve messedwith planetary goods. We fail. We’re toast.Rebounding with no … Continue reading

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No Mayo

I can’t find decent mayonnaise of late.I’d make my own, but it goes bad too fast –my need is sparing, for I nearly hatethe stuff, enough I fantasized a vastconspiracy of friends who’d say they ateit, just to freak me … Continue reading

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Junk Mail

Deleting emails every day, I findthey’re poorly crafted and irrelevant,for half are retail offers not designedfor staying home with shopping funds unspent;the balance are political in plea –they’re begging a donation out of me.A robot urges, using my first nameas … Continue reading

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