Dad
He ate plain oatmeal
every morning
in the same leather
chair that Mom
got him for Father’s Day
in ’88. One breakfast
after finishing an orange
grapefruit, I told him how
I loved him, loud enough
so he would not listen
Birds of Prey
“Most people are on
the world, not in it”
Muir said that so long
ago, but he was wrong
Most people are outside
the world, doubting they
know how to be among it
Riding under a hawk’s wings
the air forgets
what it means to be useless
Proof
Beware of labels
that claim to be hand-
made in small batches
By humans, what isn’t?
Is it good? Ask that instead.
For God’s sake, is it any good?
Gemini
Is the man
who feels
as if he will be
apprehended by
the Holy Ghost
at any moment
The kind of man who
glimpses himself 20 times
a day in the mirror
just to know
that he is probably there
yet turns away while shaving
I Write Poetry
that I have
no space for
like trains and
baseball cards
and that yearbook
from high school
that you never
could throw away
Never Judge
a bourbon
by the memories
of childhood
judge it by the way
it makes you remember
being a child
never wasting
any chance
«RELATED READ» POEMS BY MAX REIF: Testament on the Last Day of 2020 and three more»
image: George Payne
