How can Love

how can love
unleash joy
yet cause
such pain

how can it
fuel courage
or crush
our will

how can love
mend our soul
or dash
our hope

how can it
bind us together
or tear us
apart

how can love
be heard too much
yet be so hard
to express

Dead Cows Standing

once they grazed
in verdant fields
a placid herd
a wholesome scene

but now confined
in crowded pens
munching grain
from metal troughs

and there they stay
in rain or snow
in fecal muck
and acrid fumes

til rescued by
a packing plant
so we can feast
on marbled steak

River Bones

along the stream
upon the rocks
the bones appeared
a form intact

a case of ribs
a ragged spine
the legs attached
their hooves in place

a deer of course
had met its fate
perhaps from age
or coyote killed

the meat devoured
the skull detached
the carcass now
a chain of bones

and there it lay
beneath the sky
for mice and shrews
to gnaw what's left

denied a box
in gated lawns
its bones to feed
the river life

Unrequited Love

first hope
then joy
then doubt
then pain

more hope
more doubt
less hope
more pain

no hope
just doubt
more pain
just pain

The Professor

by early eve
he'd amble down
in boxer trunks
his cigs in hand

he sat to smoke
before his swim
a pleasant nod
would meet my gaze

and then he swam
a sluggish crawl
a dozen laps
before he quit

a few more cigs
until we closed
a word or two
for all who passed

and in my case
an offer made
a letter sent
to aid my goal

now decades hence
I think of him
his kindness lives
within my soul