Sound, in motion on the platter
Around and around at thirty-three
and a third revolutions per minute
Through the needle to my ears
Warm and deep, with crackles and pops

The static and the clicks
coming from the dust is my favorite part
It makes the sound seem so delicate
like it could fall and shatter

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Dear Santa,

I don't know if you make stops in the afterlife,
but if you do, please
give our love to our mother

We all know you're magical
Chimneys, flying reindeer
and all of that
so anything is possible

You don't have to wrap it
or put a bow on it
or anything like that
She already knows what it is

Sincerely,
Steven, Michael, Jeffery, & David Too

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He stands across the room
A backlit twinkle in his eyes,
with a glow in his cheeks of polyethylene

Memories rushing forward
of dearest family and friends
Most are still here with me
but too many have departed

The specter of Christmas Past visits,
trying to haunt my thoughts
Despite the spirit’s best efforts
and winter so grey and unrelenting
I am not saddened by their absence

The...

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I couldn’t think of much else;
why she left, what I did wrong
 

It was only obvious some years later,
after more experience with wars of the heart,
it had everything to do with being eighteen

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You still didn’t have your license

- at eighteen! - I thought it was kind of funny

since I was driving at fifteen or so

We practiced in my five-hundred-dollar car

with your slightly bruised ego for company

The radio playing music we liked

keeping demons barely at bay

But I could really only think about

your peculiar smile competing with the sun

wrapped in a flo...

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After checking the oil for the chain
and a quick pull on the starter rope
my father’s chainsaw cuts through the branches
Stainless steel teeth offer no quarter

The quickly turning blade suggests danger in unsure hands
regardless, his grip is firm and confident
Swift and experienced strokes 
make short work of the green and sap-filled wood

Fine powder sawdust drifts across my arms
We s...

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The guy on the radio said

he’d like to go out the way his cat did
nineteen years old, and never had bad hips, 
or the other usual problems 

The guy on the radio just came home one day 
and found his cat had left him,

right there on the porch 
in his favorite place to lie, as peaceful as could be

That’s the way I’d like to go
a good life lived, for the most part
let it go with som...

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I see you are hoarding nuts,

and silly fruits from the trees”, said Crow

“I see you are eating what looks like carrion, or maybe worse.

I saw something lying in the next street over, it looked distasteful

but maybe it’s to your liking too”, said Squirrel

“Come to think of it, I saw a few persimmons still on the tree next door.

Looks like the lady missed them while picki...

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Sleeping next to me
her body rarely moves
echoing the stillness

and the dark quiet of the night

I pull her gently closer to me
trying desperately to feel her calm

The beasts of the night are held back
by steel reins of contentment

now welcome, sleep finds me again

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I've read so much bad poetry

Plenty of it my own,  

and I’m guilty of most of this

Stop using ten-dollar words

to impress me with your vocabulary

Rhyming is fine

in limited doses

Using it too many times

makes me prefer trichinosis

I want to find you, to see who you are

and feel your tales, your thoughts,

and see your images in words

Our ...

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“It’s just a damn chicken,” we said

A rooster to be more specific

But she was fascinated by its’ coloring

as it scratched and strutted

in the autumn ground cover

as chickens will invariably do

She took the photo anyway

and told us the story of this honorable bird

“He’s the mayor of Occidental.

They vote for him every year.”

Overqualified, as the locals like to sa...

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Sometimes love is

being okay with her waking you up

At 2:00 am

to talk about your pets

The ones that have passed

and where they used to sleep at night

because she couldn't remember

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