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The poems

• ordinary poets
  • ordinary poets
  • waitress
  • desk clerk
  • chaplain
  • cable guy
  • for sale
  • luck
  • to the rescue
  • personals ad
  • warrior
  • fashionista
  • valentine
  • normal
  • sean and teresa
  • fame
  • prepared
  • caste
  • soldier
  • PR girls do pepper jelly
  • chick place
  • in Hovland
• outrage
  • baja
  • priorities
  • illusion
  • mobile home
  • tour
  • mother
  • hair
  • hurricane
  • loser
  • Red Lake
  • privilege
  • poor
  • weapons of mass destruction
  • Lamborghini
  • fur
  • temple
  • American
  • Sedona
  • values
  • why they didn't leave
  • efficiency
  • shelter
  • lounge chair
• love
  • marriage
  • old marriage
  • vulnerable
  • terrarium
  • caretaker
  • material things
  • laundry
  • rose
  • that's all, folks
  • lost and found
  • daybreak
  • eHarmony
  • envy
  • love song
  • reunion
  • beds and ladders
  • prom
  • farewell
  • incurable
  • reset
  • vow
• family
  • mother's Hippocratic oath
  • bridge
  • shepherds
  • letting go
  • wedding
  • training wheels
  • first blessing
  • scales
  • Patta's car
  • psych ward
  • graduation
  • border collie
  • triage
• thinking too much
  • magic act
  • choices
  • logic
  • sorting
  • grudge
  • doubt
  • caste
  • film
  • aging
  • Shady Pines
  • alone
  • getting ready
  • hedgehog
  • clarity
  • lonesome
  • planes and anthrax
• hurting
  • paper cuts
  • collateral damage
  • conflict
  • forest fire
  • lights out
  • wounds
  • breakup
  • commitment
  • camouflage
  • knives
  • unfaithful
• hooked
  • hooked
  • adversary
  • monkey
  • addicts and angels
  • the First Step
  • serenity prayer
  • iceberg
  • sober
  • enabler
  • hope
• loss
  • grief
  • monsters
  • autopsy
  • ambush
  • bruise
  • giving back the daisies
  • checkout
  • bad check
  • talking with death
  • condolences
  • closure
  • full post
  • spring
  • jacket
  • resurrection
  • first year
  • passage
  • Michael
  • uncharted
  • lightness of being
• respite
  • carwash
  • September 11
  • Kauai
  • at the lake
  • muskrats
  • crisis intervention
  • balloons
  • star over Sedona
  • inspiration
  • pilot light
  • souvenirs
  • night of stars
  • balance
• reflections
  • politics
  • what Disney taught us
  • moon rabbit
  • Herzegovina
  • poetry games
  • autumn
  • envy and the snapshot
  • perfection
  • critters
  • prayer
  • Sodom and Gomorrah
  • otters
  • winter of the century
  • Louie
  • the zone
• the light side
  • home repairs
  • almost haiku
  • body parts
  • competition
  • typewriter vs...
  • style

© 2010-2013

Valentine

He is old and bent over
Carefully perusing the offerings
In the valentine aisle
He ponders
Chocolates? Mellowcremes?
Perhaps the jellied hearts?
He makes a tentative selection
Then shuffles slowly to the cards
Observes the bewildering array
Studies, shakes his head
Tenderly selects a card with hearts and flowers
Later I see him in the baking aisle
Studying cookie mixes
Brownies? Maybe lemon bars?
Slowly, thoughtfully
He studies them, turns them over
He is tired and unsteady
Obviously trips to the grocery store
Are not his favorite
He looks up briefly at the bright lights
Heaves a little sigh
But he is on a mission
Here is the love of ages
This is for his valentine of many years
Still trying to win her heart
And clearly he loves her still ….