in war news I see they’re feeding displaced Lebanese on the beaches of Beirut closer to home, the orchestra of birds just before dawn is equally loud and amazing Linda told a joke at the gym this morning that I’m still laughing about and the mangoes are growing so fast I expect to get a first crop by June happiness visited me today though it didn’t stay long, acting more like separate slivers of sunlight as they sliced through breaks in the moving clouds of storms

how cautious and calculated I move, guided by the cloudy windows of my eyes, pulled by a suitcase of flesh with two long legs my wrinkles breed like rabbits while the population of my hair declines, like the upstate New York town I was born in my body and mind stumble more than they ever have and as an expert lifelong gardener, I now tolerate weeds who knows, maybe age and acceptance are becoming best friends

some rule a country some rule a kitchen a goatherder lords over his goats a butterfly has province in the air a farmer his fields one wolf reigns over the pack singers have dominion over notes a comedian wears a crown of jokes a mother is queen to careless princes and dreaming princesses and a father decrees at the end of his work day - I’m home think about it, if each of us is unique it seems inevitable that we’ll gain authority over at least one thing in our lives, be