Guitarist Leo Kottke

Says his voice sounds like
Goose farts on a muggy day.

But his guitar, his guitar....
Oh, what a voice it has!
—18 July2008

© 2008, George Polley

For Jonathan, Who At Eight, Is a Poet

In your eyes
leaves turn into
butterflies
& trees turn into
men that
move to the edge of the
field,
leaving footprints in the grass.

You see

What Having a Son Is Like

It is like standing
in front of God
with my roots running
deep into the earth

knowing

one day some other
man will stand here his
roots running into mine

On the green
dancers leap & twirl
bodies light as mist.

They catch moons with their arms
throw out suns

make the earth under their feet
groan with pleasure

& with their eyes

In this quiet room
only the TV and my pen
show any motion.
—Kushiro, 12/18/2007

The ocean
is magnificent

sun sparkling
on its calm surface.
—Kushiro, 11 January 2008

Guilty Pleasure

Yesterday
when I asked my wife
if she had taken a nap,

she said that
she had spent the time
eating red corn chips.

“I was like a kid,”
she said,

A philosophical conundrum about history and humanity

Overshadowing our greatest achievements,
so much of human history is preoccupied with