Sonnets Saying Nothing Much

1. Porch Brown Dragonfly

Fulgurant wings caught

At sun-sleepy attention.

Too far from water, too dry,

That movement looked out of place,

That chopper shape hovering

Under diamond-flashing wings,

Over the weather-beaten

Wooden steps of this porch, that

Military dragonfly

With desert-camouflage sides.

That’s why it caught at the mind,

Mind that never can decide

What’s natural, actual,

Allegorical, or lie.

2. Not to Worry

“This goes out to all my people.../ Life has no sequel.”

You can’t have another, if

You never finish the first,

And none of us will ever

Be here when we finish this,

Not as us, finishing this.

When the bear consumes the fish,

It’s only the bear who looks

For another dish.

Doesn’t matter to the fish,

Nor will the end of the bear.

If there’s a wheel of rebirth, 

It belongs to matter, calm

Until life takes hold of it.

But I’m not singing that song.

3. Forest Apples

Every word feigns weight

In this grassy ditch 

Of Devil’s Club where apples,

Yellow-green, smallish,

A bushel of them,

Unbitten, were dumped,

Animadverse multiverse,

Eden where apples

Grew out of the ground,

Abundant, the tree,

The one, untouchable tree,

Untouchable here

Because nowhere to be found.

Evening bit and disappeared.

4. Simplicity, Duplicity, Triplicity

A serpent of short sayings

Sprawled, digesting in the shade.

Lacking anyone

To interpret them,

The sayings remained hidden

And couldn’t escape,

Which added to the patience

Of the belly of the snake.

The snake’s name, Simplicius,

Referred to the linear way

It swallowed all knowing things,

But its tongues, Duplicity,

Belied all knowing by names.

Tongues laid eggs: Triplicity.

5. Attempt Nothing

Nothing much.

Nothing mush.

Nothing muck.

Nothing mugh.

Nothing muh.

Nothing meh.

Nothing mmmmm-mmmm...

Nothing mmmm-mm....

Nothing mmmm....

Nothing mmm....

Nothing, mmm?

Nothing, huh?

Oh, just fuck it. Fuck.

Nothing much.