of rosaline

Out, damned spot,
Out.
I command you
back, into the recesses

stop your fishing
act
Reeling me in to hook
me line and sinker

To you I say
Out
of grace, to you I
say be free
no apologies
just leave.

Sunday is My Birthday

and they've dredged Hillcrest Pond.

Drawn out the water, left a gaping hole -
that had always been, never seen.

Looks how my soul felt this morning -
sludge and mud, with a few brave ducks
carefully stepping among the rocks,
some trying to swim in an inch of water.

At left there is a stone wall
that keeps the river
where Odysseus sailed
through siren song -
Calypso -
the water monster -

Odysseus survived
thanks to the fishing line
we secured to his waist
and the death defying leap he
made into my hands
as Steve ignited the ship.

I siphoned gas from the lawnmower in my parents' garage,
Steve threw the match into ship's hull;
sprang the giant flames we chased down river,
once we realized we set a gasoline fire we couldn't stop.

Sunday is my birthday,
they've dredged Hillcrest Pond -

And somewhere there is a vhs,
where Odysseus
sails upon sirens,
lands upon Calypso,
and escapes unscathed
from his burning ship.