Give me a warning, I beg you

Is it wrong of me to wish
you hadn't posted the picture
of your dead baby dressed
like a doll in the gift another
friend made for you?

Is it weak of me to wish I hadn't
seen that deformed face and
the blue splotchy body because
he never quite managed to take
his first (and last) breath?

at least the license plate is laughing

.

sometimes what
you need to
make it through
is to follow
a car with the
license plate
TEE HEE
to work

.

After the latest hearing

Is it good
I didn't cry?

A sign of maturity
and self-possession

or just a sign of
giving up?

when the trees are greener

the way the trees are greener
in a spring storm with rain but no wind
water soaking the trunks and making
then darker like the lead-grey sky
making the world glow
a bright and luminous green

What you call beautiful

What you call beautiful

How could such
perfect feet so
perfectly formed

be dead before
you took a breath?
What does it feel like to dress

your dead baby for a picture
to remember it by, blue and hideously
deformed and never quite alive

and what am I supposed to do
and to feel as I look at this child
you call beautiful?

On a windless day

When you look
at the heart of a cloud
it looks big and solid
and you can't see any
movement but if
you look at the edges
for long enough
I promise
there is movement.

A beautiful problem

On the walk back
through the parking
lots, I felt like I was

constantly
                 dodging

butterflies
apparently drunk
on sunlight, humidity, and heat.

mostly flat

like a crumpled piece of paper
left under the bed for years
found and straightened and smoothed
but curling up again along all its
many creases eventually
with the help of flat, heavy objects,
it may be persuaded to lie mostly flat
but the creases will always show