winter zen

half an inch of mystery -
flake by flake

white on white on white

     news from a small town 48, November 2011

mustelid news

photo-perfect, a pair of
they-aren’t-here wolverines
appear, eyes shining in the
spotlight. and now the game
department celebrates what
they pooh-poohed before -
and the old biologist who
could have said “told you so,”
just makes two more marks
on his collection of sightings –
that makes ninety possible, thirty
probable, two on digital media.

    news from a small town 47, November 2011

sonnet for the merchant's association

the merchants are thinking of disbanding
after the holiday celebrations - maybe
"We'll just go hang with the group down
the road - make it two for one in a bad
economy." that's loose in the paper, just
before the next holiday sale. time to see
will it feel good enough to keep it together. 

over coffee, they debate: "Do we feel safe
enough  to do this, knowing just how the chair 

of the gang next town down whips her group
into shape, paralyzing independent action?
and what about what they all say - behind
her back? or are we grown-ups enough 
to make the right next choice, til next time?

and there in the corner, whispering, the same
old troublemakers: "We can take over, you know."

    news from a small town 46, November 2011

ranch dressing

I am the fatted calf; let the bellering begin 

as I go down to the trampled water grounds
wearing this season’s seeds and burrs.
I strut a grazing gaze across the landscape
that carries within it the seeds of deconstruction.
but you know, while cars can carry them
everywhere, ain’t no beggars ticks on me.

      news from a small town 45, November 2011

in the news: it's us v. us

in the news again: it's us v. us
however we make them the
them... and in response 
all that displeasure expressed
pithily-wittily – when enough is -
find a dark hole, bury self-satisfaction in’t.

     news from a small town 44, November 2011

how to lie with statistics and be quoted in the local paper

"killing two wolves won't have an effect on the population as a whole"

the only thing between us and tyranny is bureaucracy.
you don't want those official wheels to grind too fast

especially on illogical days when furlough cuts
the state paycheck a bit too tight at holiday time. thus:

"it's only two wolves - it won't affect the population
as a whole." but what I want to know is "since when

is dead not dead?" and if it's all true, then "why bother
with killing at all?" make up your mind! or wait, perhaps

it is. gather your troika and guns, boys, and be sure to
hang the wolf-loving B&B's out for breakfast. thus -

if you have twenty fingers and toes, what happens
if you cut off two? will that hobbling gait be nothing

to you? or will you hang around for the lopping
of another two, another two, till you run out? 

News from a small town 43, Oct 2011

Notes from and Interview (for Lasso the Wind)

Notes from an interview: “These rural people are
pretty simple and unsophisticated,” the local
rouser of rabble said, leading a mob of eighty
so-called friends and neighbors to hang in effigy
two folks on the other side of an idea. Not that
this is new. “Joseph didn’t sell” notes Tim Eagan,
lucky enough to be through here but not on
the business end of an imaginary lynch mob.
Meanwhile, life goes on. “Vote for me!” pleads
this one and that. "I'm of this place - and here
just for you is a bumper sticker equal in
intellectual weight to my estimate
of your intelligence.” And with that, we'll all
operate according to our morals (all secretly
thinking prophylactically - I don’t want my laws
enforced with someone else's morals - as
you never know where they’ve been.) Oh, it’s
beautiful here in Wallowa County - poor stolen,
beat-up landscape. And all of us are complacent
beneficiaries  - whatever side we're on, no matter
how righteous or not, we occupy the Wallowa Country.

News from a small town 42, Oct 2011