bouncer

plantations of rubber trees

oozing thick liquid

assumed riches, hard-fought

in jungle’s sweaty labor

illnesses and terrors

but worth it all for wealth

until laboratory synthesis

created material with rubber’s

assets plus close supervision

of production and needed variations

plantations of rubber trees

left unattended in the jungle

by sweaty, malarial-infected

disillusioned get-rich men

re-write

editing is so personal

seeing what is wrong

versus what is other

than i would have written it

which does not respect

the author’s choices or style

ah, the relief and joy

when author and editor

work toward the same goal

weight of time and ice

 weight of time and ice

grinding pebbles into granite

creating geo-scape artistry

on greater-than-human scale

siblings’ memories

our parents changed

in the eight years between

my birth and his

my sibs and i can never

write the same memoir

fat colors

 something more than the pale purple

dense cloudy sky

something about the color of earth

objects themselves

trees, grass—fattened

thicker as though osmosis

had already taken on water

and changed their reflective surface

even before the clouds had dropped

their rain

sky rivers buffeted

our sky rivers buffeted, dislodged

from paths we on earth have come

to expect

changes in our weather from above

and beyond bring snow yet again

in the middle of april

and yet again the knowledge

that, despite our fussing, nature

will do as nature wills

as it weaves the world we live in

noisy, but still unnoticed

 fireworks, noise, splendor

but the new year

like progress itself

slips in so quietly

it is barely noticed

bit by bit, task by task

until we are startled

to see what change has happened

while we busy

doing something else

                        mjNordgren  1/1/2023  N