So Little

time like a shadow
touches me in its passage
leaving so little

Skim Milk

panhandler shivers
as cold faces stream past
skim milk tonight

he sits by the hearth
when mornings are chilly
hunger shall scold him

“The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg in harvest and have nothing.” Proverbs 20:4

crow eyes the cat’s catch
clacks his beak hungrily
envy eats its own heart

moments at a time
days trickle past — raindrops
slipping down the pane

whose voice tells the leaves
it’s time to let go?
whose voice will I hear?

truth arrives first
in willing hands and feet
then on the tongue