Author Archives: Pasquale

Twitter @Dirty_Squal

Doomscrolling

We’re so critical

of screens.

Pixels, forming

only the known.

We scold our

children

for their obsession.

Watching disconnection

manifest in form.

Like VR goggles,

thoughts entomb

our sensitive vision.

One turtle up

true disconnection

goes round’.

Samsara

in our hands.

Dressing My Transplants

I saw her

coming on.

Clouds rolling,

grey and gray.

–

I’d prepared,

wheelbarrowing,

pitchforking,

cover crop seeding,

compost spreading,

to plant her

blueberry bushes.

–

She’s something

like the rain.

Never hesitating

to fall.

Always letting

go, into

rolling thunder,

white light.

–

If you stand

in her

she’ll drench you.

No matter

your clothes.

If you’re there

with her

she’ll hold you

up

like water

softened ground.

If you follow her

she’ll let you

watch her

grow.

Cursive

Someone important said

people should write in cursive.

I wasn’t sure why

it seemed that technology

was outdated.

–

I’ve bought a few pens in my life

at the market, online, always for gifts.

What weight?

What point?

Why does it matter?

–

Now, sitting here,

sword sponsored by Sonoco,

the billboard’s bent ballpoint bouncing

within its too wide tip,

clip

shattered

by hyperextension in 2012

for a hyponychium stretch,

I understand the artist-brush relationship.

–

But I stash my lemon carefully

because inspiration might spoil

searching too long

for comfortable tools.

Half Caff

Why won’t I

say thank you

to my parents?

My YETI,

overflowing with gratitude

like i’ve chosen too many

ounces on the Keurig.

A nervousness like

when a wild animal

gets too close

for comfort

but a hope

your own stillness

brought them around.

Soil’s Web

Humic acids

fungal exudes

Cocci, bacilli

bacterial glues

Clay colloids to agregates

mining rocks

dissolved cements

Equalized by nematodes

arthropods with outside bones

Quickly moving forms with tails

flagellates, amoebas snail

Rotifers and water bears

ciliates with body hairs

A design so grand it built the world

those aggregates they lead to squirrels

So when you see a spider’s web

between the limbs of subtle hedge

Take a look, although entombed

insects wait to be consumed

One might bow to that small arachnid

eight legged and unattractive

Her mighty web came from herself

weaving, branches, leafs, a stone, itself

A daring feat spun in the air

victims winged and unaware

Just like the soil, she’s realized

her architecture is the prize

Sewing space the soil sings

as she returns the flying things

——

Dedicated to Dr. Elaine Ingham & Dr. Elaine’s Soil Food Web School

Being Handed a Rock

My friends and I have this meme

we pass each other rocks

Sometimes it’s the same one

we keep them in our pockets

Sometimes we pick up new ones

we’ve found on the street

Occasionally they have wings

or they’re hard to move like boulders

When apart they’re virtual

a rock emoji

In conversation, metaphorical

a reminder of what is

To us the rocks have value

we never pass them too often

but too often we find ourselves searching everywhere

but under our noses

Sometimes I forget about the rocks

like when my hands are full of groceries

or when my mother asks a favor

I’ll even turn rocks over in the garden

planting, mulching, watering,

and all I’ll see are hornets

But just when I forget

our drama’s real, life ending

We pass each other rocks

a place to stand when mending

–

Dedicated to R.B.

Bugs I

Spring has a sting

brought buy wing

and legged thing

–

An energy unmatched

igniting movement

at hornets dispatch

–

Their backs armoires

conglobate protecting

trillionpede harmonies

–

Humming emphatically

bodies sporadically

weaving ultraviolet majesty

–

Tunneling colonies

wafting swarms

nature’s biological storms