Regular Poem: We expect commitment from our fog

The cloud
vying for the coveted position of
fog
must be hearty,
must bring salty spring smells,
must be able to withstand severe wind.

We expect
commitment
from our fog
here in Kansas.

If you want to just linger in a ditch on cool mornings
and laze around until noon,
move on out.
We’ll wait

for some cloud
who will bring its own sandbags
and hunker down
to blur all the streetlights
and roll up its sleeves
to endure 50 mph wind.

 

Regular Poem: Early Ugly Spring

In the early
ugly spring
it’s half mud and
half purple weeds trying to trick you into thinking they’re flowers
some cottonwood blooms that pop up over night to look pretty
and make you sneeze.

In the early
ugly spring
it’s all
stripes and plaids and polka dots
one tube sock and a knee-high
scrambled together in a rush to get out the door
a mismatched season
who doesn’t even care that it looks like it just rolled out of bed.

In the early
ugly spring
it’s all hungover plants
a mimosa tree who growls it’s awake when you call to see if it’s coming in today
a dazed rose bush gulping down an aspirin and a cup of coffee
a couple of tulips making the walk of shame in the clothes they wore out last night.

In the early
ugly spring
it’s not quite
fresh and new yet
half dead and lumbering toward something
the birds can’t quit singing about
for a reason the
early ugly spring
can’t figure out.

Regular Poem: Springtime Smell

When your hair feels dirty but it isn’t dirty
or when your hair is dirty but doesn’t feel dirty
or when your hair looks dirty but could be quite dirtier
and you can smell your own strange salty smokey smell
like a small cloud of a warm moist you
that smells like your hair but not exactly
and you wonder if everyone can smell it too and wonder
if everyone can identify the precise dirtiness of your hair

that’s how you know it’s really truly springtime
because it’s a time that is perpetually paradoxically
both wet and dry
dirty and clean
and you feel so moist all the time
but also your hair is dry and gritty feeling
and that smell might not even be you
but a smell in the air
because it’s kind of an outside smell
a dirt smell (not dirty but dirt)
a pollen smell
an earthworms smell
a breeze over a man-made lake smell
a smell that’s a nature smell
but is kind of gross, too
and kind of wet and kind of dry
and clammy
and half-sunburned
and salty and sour
but also fresh and natural.
And it’s springtime.