Rosemary, Sage, and Thyme

Garden guardian,

Stand over the silver sage.

Thyme, nullify time.

Henbit and Chickweed

If henbit could cluck

And chickweed could chirp

Then green-combed roosters

In fine flowered finery

Would be to spring

What their avian counterparts are today:

Sound settings to wake people up

The good old fashioned way.

For few avian patriarchs

See enough light of day

To remember their job to greet it,

Subsisting as they do in free-range factories

To feed cloned appetites.

If henbit could cluck

And chickweed could chirp

Would they spread gloom and doom gossip

Of a weed killer come to judge the earth?

Rumex acetosella, Where the People Are

I searched for you

Half the morning

And in frustration asked

The question in my mind

"Where are you?"

And you replied

"Where the people are"

And sure enough

Sheep sorrel

Your tendency to domestication

Like your namesake

Shined through this wilderness

And by a campfire ring of rocks

I found you

Clinging to disturbed soil

Of where your people trod.

Oxalis stricta and I

Potted with peace lily

You

Yellow wood sorrel

Wild weed sowed

Sunny in windowsill

Reaching skyward 

Erect with pickle pods

I

From chaos

Escaped to cafeteria

And iceberg lettuce

Flavorless 

Imagining how 

We two souls

Without the confines

Of your pot

And my sterilized halls

Would have room to grow

You

Enough to share your flavor

With my salad and

I

To resonate your gift

Of freedom to the sky

But like a good little shamrock

You will stay on your sill

And when the sun sets

Fold your heart felt leaves in sleep

And I will clock out

And go home without you.

Flower Child

*     *     *     Flower Child     *     *     *

Flower child
All decked out
In your grandma's crochet,
Was this the day
To the park you were taken
And you sang "Where have all the flowers gone?"
For you knew every word.

And on that day
Upon your wrist
Was placed a copper bracelet?
And on that bracelet was a name,
You knew not of
But somewhere, to someone
He was more than a name missing in action?

And on that day did a cloud cross over
And blot out your sunny sky?
And with that bracelet
Were you forever shackled?

*     *     *     The Nurse     *     *     *

WWII, European Theater, Airborne

You came to us with a photograph,
Good-looking god of a man,
Towering over President Eisenhower
And shaking his hand.
Now, it's I who tower over you
Confined to your wheelchair,
But, yes, I see the resemblance to that god-like face
Etched out by time.

WWII, Pacific Theater, Navy Sailor

You cannot speak a word of any sense,
But sing as sexy as Johnny Cash,
That for me you'd even try to turn the tide,
That for me you walk the line.

WWII, The Phillipines, The Phillipines

Yes, I know, you told me a hundred times,
That you served in the Phillipines,
But never did I not love to hear it,
That you were the cook,
Thinking you were on vacation,
But hunger came, and privation,
Then shrapnel came
And took your legs.

WWII, Pacific Theater, Marine Corps Sniper

I remember when I dressed your wound,
Your fist cocked back;
I did not flinch,
But falling into your bright blue eyes,
Said, "I'm sorry."
And your fist on safety locked,
You could not strike a woman.

WWII, Battle of the Bulge, POW

Of you I know to never ever
Feed you turnips
And that the tip of your ear is missing
And so are some of your toes,
Frostbitten in the trenches of long ago.
But of your mind
There is nothing missing.

Korean War, The Forgotten War

I was warned about you
That you knew how to kill
And had trained others in those deadly arts.
I was advised not to startle you
Into thinking I was your enemy,
But I was not afraid of you
Sweet intelligence of a man.
And when you asked me to marry you
While the tobacco juice dribbled
From your toothless gums
I should have said, "Yes" with all abandon
And to hell with professional distance.

Vietnam

Oh, man, you are in trouble.
Broke the law!
But on that day with Mary Jane,
This was a happy place.
Until we found out why
And came the dogs who snooped you out.

Persian Gulf

Unknown ailments poison you
Not just drink and cigarettes.
But I have seen through your disabilities
And know you are the self-appointed
Defender of the weak,
Upholder of justice,
And maintainer of peace,
And that as a younger man
You can follow through with it.
I appreciate you, my haunted bodyguard.

Afghanistan, The War on Terror

With your bloodied hands,
Please, I plead with you,
Do not take your life
And be a victim of your times.
I so love you
Like a baby in my arms.

WWI, The Great War

You are the oldest man I have ever known,
With the boyish of smiles.
What treasure lies hid in your sunken ship
Laid out on a hospital bed?
Behind those cloudy, rheumy eyes,
Are horses still remembered?

*     *     *     Flower Child     *     *     *

Flower child
All grown up
Looking smart in your nursing scrubs,
Why do you not wear a poppy
On this Veterans Day
For all the flowers gone?

Because I hold in my hand
Poppy's purist derivative
To ease the pain and suffering
In my living garden.

Poet Apothecary

IF
after X-ray, CT, and MRI
The doctor finally sits down to look you straight in the eye,
And tells you your migraine is all in your head,
Your chest pain is serious, but good news you're not dead,
And of your abdominal pain we can find no cause,
That sometimes a problem must grow for imaging to see it at all,
But in the meantime, here, take all these pills,
There must be one that is good for your ills,
And come back to see us when your symptoms get worse,
AND
Of your next trip you are wary,
THEN
Hear now the poet apothecary.

A poem a day, a walk, clean water, real food -
this is the prescription especially for you.
Here are the instructions beginning with food,
Though not in any order of importance, they're all good for you.

First food.
If the label says BHA, BHT, TBHQ,
Yellow No. 5, Red 40, or #1 Blue,
Avoid it, you've not evolved to eat crude oil.

If the label says natural,
Buyer beware.
Your understanding of that may not be theirs.
The best food for you has no label at all.

Second, clean water, which can be obtained
By not polluting it in the first place.
But, alas, this has become a global initiative.
Suffice it to say you must first boil and distill it.

Third, walk.  Keep on walking right into the light.
Walk like Buddha,
Merlin,
and Jesus Christ.

Fourth, do not be tempted to neglect this,
Is one poem daily
To help you operate your heavy machinery.
Read it.  Write it.  Live it.  Breathe it.

For litigious reasons here are my credentials,
Poetica medica, RN, BSN, with ACLS.
I am here to shock you if needed,
But, please, first, try my prescription.

To conclude, by all means seek a physician's advice,
But in the end it is you who knows what is right.