Nineteen in '72

Probably wait to submit this for the summer editions, but felt it was time to let go.

Sea-Bright Jersey midnight ocean

bodies running mascara salting

my cellist fingers finding your note
the small of your back l'Arc de Triomphe 

Do you remember that summer solstice

far far away from the madding crowded

envious bar in that cloud-stained joint

high school undertow pulling us down

A name never asked but what’s in a name

more sweet girl than either imagined

memory epiphany joy and regret

to be so young once more in your eyes

Something unspoken some thing not offered

given taken not given withheld

too soon we surrendered shining immortals

these days these winters I cuddle your light

Commuter

Technodominant morning PATH 
filled with Asians frantically working 
opposable thumbs sending last farewells 
the end of our world sweeps into the car

there's meaning in shadows 
suddenly 
baked onto concrete walls

witness the new generation learning
feel the air suck away from the platform
empty silent watching the train and
smile it's you who are left behind

Somebody's Watching

Sometimes, when I'm late driving home from the city, I stop at one of the NJ Turnpike Nathan's and grab a Small #1 and the latest issue of Popular Mechanics. PM used to be every boy's entree into the future and full of little ads for ACME Rocket Launchers YOU CAN BUILD AT HOME and other useless but very cool stuff. There were also adds to meet Russian Women but I knew my mother would intercept any mail while I was in school so I never partook, but I did waste many a one dollar bill on "Additional Information" which every budding 8 year old physicist needed to stay abreast of the latest developments. I have fond memories of Heath-Kit radios and backyard catapults and one disastrous DRANO bomb that went off sooner then calculated. My favorite issue was the one projecting jet cars and people movers and food synthesizers ala Star Trek—all by the year 2000. Blew that one—huh.

The magazine’s a bit more grounded these days, and this month there's an article about video games and IT gadgets watching you while you’re watching them. Wii is pure evil in the making; devious Google is slowly setting us up for the final domination. I just began using SKYPE for business, and according to PM I’m literally opening the front door and inviting Big Brother to take a chair. Remember the shot from inside the POD in 2001?  HAL is watching me as I type.

But I've found a solution.

We’re a couple weeks past Christmas now. Today I took the tree down and went through the bag of stuff we got from siblings far away and nieces not so far. What do you get the AARP couple who has everything? Of course, a set of tea cozies hand knitted by wealthy children attending their innovative private school on sale at the annual Craft Show (or Crap Show, as my neighbor likes to say). Only one problem—I drink coffee and Maria drinks—I’ve stopped trying to name it.  But these cute little earthen tone tea cozies make perfect web cam tents. They even hug the microphone. I’d  post a photo but my Cannon Digital supposedly has an embedded serial number hidden in every exposure, letting someone somewhere know someday what I like looking at. 

Popular Mechanics and MAD Magazine. Viva la Revolucion!