Consoling The Future Groom

[to the FRINGE, who else?]

Consoling The Future Groom

I hate being engaged!
he yells shaking the walls
and assumptions.
I try to comfort him
it will be all right you love her
and she loves you
he starts to cry.
yes he says
but the waiting and aching
and her
she yells crying with her plans
and 20 credit hours
not enough time!
too much time!
it will be alright, just hang on.
you will be there
you promise
he pleads
i do.

No Offense

You'll pardon
the look on my face
if my heart starts twisting into knots
at your words.
Forgive me
if I look less than pleased
by the stinging insults
and cruel laughter
about my best friend.
Please excuse my sensitivity
I do not mean to overreact
when you fling jokes like stones
at a friend whose hands are bound
so she can not block them.
Sorry
for hating you,
I am sure it is all my fault.
After all, you ended with
"No Offense,"
right?

Red Lion Lost at Brigham Young University (The World Is Our Campus)

[To anyone who is lost here in America. I hope you find yourself here.]

Red Lion Lost at Brigham Young University (The World Is Our Campus)

Walking between classes at BYU,
I found a yellow cloth flag,
the size of the sort of envelope a friend
sends to wish you Happy Birthday
or thank you for coming to her baby shower
and it lay on the ground, forgotten,
floundering in the wind,
a trout just caught.
The red dragon-like lion reached his
arms for me, trying to look fierce,
but I saw him as alone and afraid
in a place he did not know, among flags
with only stripes and stars to talk to.
So I picked up the flag and tried to
remember what country he was from,
but I couldn't.
So I named him my own, and thought that I
would not want to be rained and walked on
if I were lost on a foreign sidewalk.