Life in Person by Laurie Molloy

"Life in Person" 

Everybody
is a phone camera photographer
sending pictures into space
all day and night

everybody sees
more and more
into each other's lives
every day

without talking
touching
smelling
listening in person

I can write
and you may read
but you won't know
my voice or intonation
the way my breath makes the page waver
how my eyes wander
and I talk really fast
while I read this

Summer's End

a whispering summer morning

greets me with a hazy eye

slowly rolling over

into a lazy day

at the lake

wind and water

washing and spraying

our bodies

as we forget the days

will soon be shorter

and the nights long

we forget

we forget

we remember

we forgot

so we go back to

the beach

back to the barbecue

and hold on 

to our friends

to our memories

to our warm beer

to the stories

we tell about last summer

or back in the day

Birthday Parties

Swings, cake,
splashing in the lake

water, slides,
and kiddie rides

giggle, tickles,
burgers and pickles

singing, smiles
large toy piles

a special day
in every way

"Awake early" by Laurie Molloy

Awake early to catch a glimpse

Of immaculate silence

Untouched

Without breath

Missing the chatter

That goes along

With obligatory words

 

Unleashed from beeping

And buzzing

And banging

 

No one outside

No one at the door

 

Those in the house

Quiet as a mouse

Then the alarm

 

And the banging

And buzzing

Remind me I’m alive

The earth has returned

As it was yesterday

 

Grateful for my moment

Of silence

Amazed at the bounty

Of noise

 

So happy to hear

Little words

Love and Stargazing

stargazers, romantic watchers

of the sky, vast and incomprehensible-

the wonders that live amongst the

endless stars and galaxies.
 

Lovers dream and watch quietly

holding hands, amazed by how their

love is as eternal as the universe,

and as big as the all the planets and moons combined-

as wide as the longest arms stretched all the way out

as deep as the bottomless sea-

love like that not for the lucky

Love like that for the loving
for the givers
for the dreamers
 

Fleeting naptime

As the quiet moment passes
the nap, not quite long enough ceases
activity increases
i forgot i was busy
with business
dizzy with
dizziness
for a moment i focused
for a moment i formed my own thought

Reading bliss

I've been consuming books
like a tired traveler devours food and conversation
at a rest stop
re-reading words to uncover new meanings
like a person repeats their steps
to find their keys
delving into simile and metaphor
as someone who purports themselves
a writer
and as all the pages go by
the minutes evacuate space
without my knowledge
and i slip into a world
imagined by another
a world close to mine
as all of our lives
meet each others
with daily similarities
eradicating loneliness
when realized