Trouble with Tenacity

Trouble with Tenacity

trouble with tenacity is;
it’s tameless;
talkative;
takes you to task;
and it
trumps everything;

trouble with tenacity is;
it tears with its talons;
taunts with its teeth;
taints everything;
and it
takes every bit of your time.

trouble with tenacity is;
it’s tediously intangible;
taxes intuition;
and it
tortures the heart.

trouble with tenacity is;
it’s terribly tumultuous;
tremendously irritating;
and it's
tyrannically tempestuous.

trouble with tenacity is;
it tangles the tapestry;
and it
tarnishes everything it touches.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

cryptic soup

cryptic soup

there’s a poem
in my soup
that won’t let me be
and though cryptic
says something to me

a message to me
in the leaves of my tea
whose meaning I see
is my own

a word that you said
swimming round in my head
and it just
will not leave me alone

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Words of Wisdom/ A Bumper Year for Mushrooms

Words of Wisdom / A Bumper Year for Mushrooms
For Robyn

“I’m tired”, I cried. “I need a husband.
Someone to take out the trash,
dry the dishes after dinner,
and help with the dirty laundry.”

“I’ve got one”, she told me.
“One that I love.
And I’ve got twice as much laundry,
twice as many dirty dishes piled up,
and he never remembers to take out the trash.”

“I can’t stand any more rain!” I said.
“Well, there has been a lot of rain this September.”
My sister said.
“But, it’s been a bumper year for mushrooms.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

When spring came again,
I asked,

“How can I bear to smell the rain on warm pavement,
watch the Horse-Chestnut stretch,
and see your red Geraniums bloom in their flower-box?”

But, the rain perfumed a different world this year,
the Horse-Chestnut doesn’t look like the same tree,
and you didn't plant any red Geraniums.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Burned

Burned

I tried so hard to be your friend,
but you kept me at bay.
When you found 'twas me you loved;
That’s when you ran away.

I had a mind with acumen,
but I lacked a certain look.
I had a heart that loved you;
That’s what you forsook.

I don’t know how to integrate
this lesson that I’ve learned;
To love a shallow minded man
will only get you burned.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Killing Time

Killing Time

Time stretches out long past defining.
Clocks, dials, and sands run out

as Winter’s sun is bit by bit declining.

With dwindling work-years waning,
love and death lie in their beds alone,
life’s force now slowly draining.

Time takes in trade a man’s toolbox
then in turn presents to him with ceremony
a futile golden watch.

Each and every second counted;
each moment left to sit; a vacant stare

until such time as death can be surmounted.


Lindsay Riggs Brown

The Changing Tide

The Changing Tide

I’ve swum out too far.
You paddle
in the shallows
oblivious to my peril.

Muscles aching,
burning breath
I stretch my capacity to reach
an unfamiliar shore.

Emerging,
dripping sea water,
I shield my eyes with my hand,
and scan the empty shore I’ve left behind.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Tired

Tired

So tired
of apologizing
for being,
for taking
up your space.

Fuck you
for being
so selfish.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Nothing

Nothing

shimmering in
all your glossiness
weightless
insubstantial
no pain
no gain

hovering on
another’s vapor
vapidly
rapidly
never settling

you are doomed
my darling
to an eternal hunt
for nothing

an empty bubble
a big fat zero
nothing lost
nothing gained

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Denial

Denial

My back is to the candle,
I'm faced the other way.
The human heart can stand anything,
if it looks the other way.

Misfortune cannot break me.
I’ll seek another way.
I won't see the shit that happens,
I'll exist another day.

The coldness is unending
living life outside the fray.
When all is said and done though,
I’ll have lived my life my way.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

(P) Alliteration

(P) Alliteration

pale, pink, plastic
placed persistently

presumes to placate

pretends to pacify
a painful

pitter-patter

pump

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Beauty

Beauty

Beauty without the beloved
is like a sword
through the heart.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Stuck

Stuck

Like a cartoon light bulb
turning on above my head,
it occurs to me
that I no longer need you.

But the moment passes
on squeaking, wobbling wheels
of a dessert cart
and I am stuck...

Stuck in viscous
chocolate syrup and
a strawberry torte

heart.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Tears In a Tea Cup

Tears In a Tea Cup

Where did you go?
I am alone.
Tears gather in a tea cup.
The cat won’t drink from the saucer.

I see your scrawl

across the page.
You knew me
that long time ago.

I hear your drawl.
Doesn’t matter what the words,
in my ears
they were all true.

Kindness, you spoke of
simple, sweet kindness.
Something died.
The challenge was in living it.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Winter Rain

Winter Rain

Time is long;
wants are too;
needs don’t
even figure.

One question mark
mocks;
makes;
all this busted beauty.

Flash a light
on every quandary;
look deeply at each
nickel-colored  sky.

Unfurl one perfect
imperfection;
send it skyward;
ask for everything.

Thunder out
the blackness
of tree-bark
drenched in rain.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

So Inconvenient

So Inconvenient

It is so inconvenient
that you should show up now,
when I have made up my mind
not to love again.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Don't Think Twice

Don't Think Twice

I fell in love with Dylan
his Dylan voice
sang Dylan songs

into my ear.

I asked him who he was.
His crinkled blue eyes

looked deeply into mine.
He said,
“The answer is blowing in the wind.”

I told him that I loved him.
He tipped his hat and smiled.
“Don’t think twice
it’s alright.”

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Shame on you

Shame on you

Shame on you.
What have you done?
Your heart’s dried up.
You think you’ve won.

But after all is said,
and after all is done,
you will be alone,
and I will be the one.

I will be the one
to never be alone.
I will be the one
to find a happy home

I’m sorry life has been so cruel,
you felt that you must hide.
I’m sorry. Yes, I’m sorry,
but I have really tried

To give you all the love
I’m sure that you deserve.
To cherish you and give my heart
in practice and in word

I hope that you find happiness.
But I think that you will not.
Then one day you'll look at me
and see what you have lost.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Present in the Past

Present in the Past


Slipping fast
the love is gone.
Gone, gone, you setting sun.

Present in the past
I hear Neil Young,
“Gone, gone, the damage done.”

Now at last
the battle’s done.
Gone, gone, your monkey won.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Coney Island

Coney Island

I loved to watch you dance.
Arms and legs akimbo,
eyes closed,

a smile spread across your face.

Others on the dance floor had to move out of your way.
They gawked;

you never saw them,

or if you did you never let on.

Those fools only

made me stand taller,
and dance harder,
proud to be your partner.

I loved to listen to your laugh,
that unique blast
part hic-up,

part guffaw.

On a hot day late in August,
after too much wine the night before,
we rode the cyclone

again and again.

Later, amongst a few off-season stragglers,
in the coolness of the circus tent,
we sat on the bleachers,

holding hands.

We watched a sword-swallower

do her tricks
I whispered something obscene,
you laughed loud.

She looked and asked,

“Is that your real laugh?”
And I asked “Is that a real sword?” .
then we ran away laughing.

In the hot sun again,
we asked a sweet old lady to take our picture.
She focused your camera on us

and motioned for us to back up.

Farther, farther,

and farther still.
You, ever the New Yorker,

thought she was trying to steal your camera.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Faith

Faith

Withered
on a vine,
like
raisins;
raisins;
sweeter
than grapes.

Grapes
altered,
grapes
transformed,

no longer grapes,
now, something more.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Bequest

Bequest

(for P.M.)

I wanted to leave
you something
a Blue Jay’s feather
drifting down
from nowhere

Maybe the tulips
I planted

near that tree
will poke through
a late spring snow

A tide-worn

shard of sea glass
with an initial
mine or yours
washing up

in a wave

at your feet

I might come to you
while you sleep
and tell you things
I meant to say
long before
I went away

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Measures

Measures

The measure of a filament
a weightless bit of nature’s tatted lace
ill-gotten
all that’s left of
a fallen leaf.

The measure of a human soul
twenty-one grams
of Robin's-egg-blue

won by deception
held in the palm of my hand
for one short summer.

The measure of human beauty
every inch
in the eye of the beholder
a honey bee,
a smooth piece of plum colored sea-glass,
and a poem.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Visible Thread

Visible Thread

Opened
Faded
Un-insulated
I am the visible thread
of a spider’s web.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Give and Take

Give and Take

I give
you take
multi-colored silk
from a magicians
breast pocket.

I push
you pull
circus clowns
from a Volkswagen beetle.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Shelter

Shelter

Half-

way in,
human

sounds

disappear.
Timbers creak
in the highest pine.
Perhaps, I will build

my nest in there;
a shelter from the storm

Half-way in,
sitting on a fence;
waiting for the world to catch up.
Enamored by a chipmunk’s stripes;
obsessed with the thought of a mockingbird’s native song.
Perhap, I will build my nest in here. a shelter from the storm

Lindsay Riggs Brown