*Summer reading

Summer reading

I who read read because

   I mean it and

am not (nor ever will be)

  soul-lost so much

as tree-tost with a round

  hot sun on top

ha! whenever I do.

 I read a page

in usual fits and starts

  who's outgrown

(but clinging still to)

  dopey lyrics

and quotes so two eyes

  may look wise,

(a kind of a long shot

  so why bother!)--

I let the lawn birds flap

  in the sprinkler

sodden beyond relief,

  & unstick from me

Here at this time of day,

   zero-gravity seat

& the sky's hatched face

  are all there is--

  and bees falling

wide of my bare arm,

(ha! a bee's silly prance

  and weak stinger)

I read because I mean it,

   like them

wings tight, nowhere to go,

  whenever I do

(2026)