THE MUSE
You owe me. Pay up. According to my accounts, you have...

CASUAL FRIEND
Send lies to the people listed below....

THE AWARDS COMMITTEE
This is to notify you that--but what's the use?...

THE WISE
The world could fall to pieces with no notice....

UNCLE AL
A chicken is a touchy creature....

THE OTHERS
Here where we live the lines are down and the surprises build into snowbanks...

DANNY
Dusty Clinton Township kids making paper roosters and snowball...

SAMUEL RENSBERGER
I am your grandfather's grandfather and through my wakeless sleep I dream...

OLD NEIGHBOR
East across low muddy fields and behind the screening trees you can see...

THE WORM COUNCIL
We call your attention to worms. Though sweeping ice age disaster...

THE HERON
I flew in down by the round deep pond behind your house...

WITNESS
I saw the largest moon ever rise huge bright yellow, sailing where it cared to...

MEMORIAL DAY: DIGGING THE GARDEN

Just less than spade deep
I scrape a slab of limestone
with shapely, squared-off corners,
level side upmost
in the dark clay. It nests
in the dirt, weighty, permeable, settled.
I heave it up,
it skins the prints from my fingers,
I am in a cool sweat of work now.
I lift the stone to my cheek
and press against its gritty plane.
A treasure from someone else's life.