202
Sonnets From Other Lives: Garry

She was posing with The Naked Cowboy
in the only photograph of her
he’d kept. He remembers how annoyed
he’d been with her that night. Now the absurd
picture reeks of nostalgia and longing.
She loved that wild electric New York energy
that drove him insane. He’d tried prolonging
the thing. Bad idea but hey… She finally
left him & he left that crazy city.
Boulder suits him better but he’s yet
to find another her among the pretty
Colorado mountain girls . Regret-
fully he puts away the photo—noting he’s
now doomed to share her with a guy in BVDs.

201
Sonnets From Other Lives: June

A murder of crows flies across the sky—
heading westward—fleeing from the setting sun.
June swings on the gate & wonders why
they do this every night. There was someone—
her teacher-- Mrs. Good Old What’s Her Name--
said they were roosting. What is that? Like roosters?
She’s confused--roosters & crows are not the same
thing. It’s hard to know just what the truth is
with grownups sometimes. They’ll call something “teasing”
but when she does that same thing they call it “fibbing”.
Shadows grow. She notices she’s freezing
& jumps off the gate to warm herself by skipping--
singing-- crows can roost & that’s a thing I know—
& the other thing I knows is roosters crow.

199
Sonnets From Other Lives: Dee

The mall’s become a ghost town now. As Dee
makes her way to Sears to buy work boots,
she imagines other things she’ll buy when she
gets that magic paycheck. Something cute
from Claire’s for Jilly, (but they closed in May),
new kicks for Ken (if Footlocker had not
bailed last year). The jobs all went away
when the plant closed & the stores all got
outa Dodge as well. But now this job—
a flagger on a highway project—will
get her back on her feet (thank God).
I’ll fix the car--she thinks-- pay off the bills,
buy clothes for the kids for goodness sake!
It’s nice to finally get a fucking break.

198
Sonnets From Other Lives: George & Martha

Soon enough we’ll all be quoting Yeats—
you know, “The best lack all conviction…”
He’d muted the Republican debates
to elucidate our national afflictions.
Martha quilted on as George continued—
How’d all this “passionate intensity”
wind up getting channeled all into
saving tax cut for the rich? Insanity!
Martha turned the T.V. off & wandered over
to the stereo. She put on some Chopin.
George, who would have thought now that we’re older
that we’d still have to go stick it to the man.
Historically the obvious solution
is to organize another revolution.

197
Sonnets From Other Lives: Anastasia

40,000 feet over Ohio
Anastasia felt a sudden surge
of sadness. She fought the urge to cry. No
--she told herself. The mournful dirge
that was the soundtrack of her life
was swelling once again within her, but
she didn’t want her seatmate & his wife
to worry or think she was some nut
case or something. When do these things end?
People lose a loved one & move on
all the time. But here it is again—
the agonizing knowledge that he’s gone.
There’s nothing--& Jesus knows she’s tried--
that fills the void that he used to occupy.

196
Sonnets From Other Lives: Earl

DUDE you gotta come over RIGHT NOW!
Zoey’s losin it—she’s throwing shit
at me &….I don’t know—I’m sittin there & POW
this plate flies right by me. It nearly hit
my frickin head! Say what? Man, I dunno
what set her off…well yeah I guess I do.
But other couples have their troubles & don’t go
all ballistic all the time. You think that you
could maybe talk her down? She’s locked herself
in the bathroom. Honey? Crap! She broke something
in there. Honey—take the phone &…What the hell?
Ow! Shit! She took another fucking swing
at me! Yeah I swung back but dude I missed her.
Yer right I shouldn’t have hit on her sister.