I thought about you today as I ambled with dogs past your home,
and surprisingly, in my chest, felt no tug, no pain, just a romantic comedy smile.
These two hallowed lives, connected briefly with our full permission and the careful attempts to love and care were true and flawless,
for when our time had passed,
we both smiled and each turned back to loving our sacred lives, alone.
All the better for having loved each other in our way.
Cray 2021
Rick and Cheryl in 1975
“Thank you,” said my future.
“You’re welcome”,” said my now.
“Fuck you,” said my future
“Sorry,” said my now.
Click blue text to follow link: STARTING TO GATHER POEMS AND ESSAYS BASED For my friend M ICHELE
Last Cowboy in Kittitas County
Dedicated to Ryan Thompson, the first Ellensburg Police Officer killed in the line of duty for over 50 years.
I saw a cowboy outside the courthouse today,
Across a street, perched on the low wall in the sun.
Having paid his dues inside that hole,
He wept over nothing and no one.
His Hat tipped flirtatiously from my gaze,
While he leaned gracefully in cotton and leather.
Poetry trickled from the brim of his hat
And scurried under traffic, toward me.
I saw the last man
Who broke the law, right.
I smelled his oiled boots
And crisp kerchief.
I loved his lean form
And blue dungarees.
And Love always
ends in tears.
We all saw that cowboy
At the courthouse today,
And spoke of anything, but.
C.ray 03/20/19
It is with a clear mind that I step into school year 2018/19.
A teacher again. A target, a poem, a beauty queen or hag, A teacher again.
Brisk stride, again. It's mine.
Creating a space within a space. I don't need it all, the space, that is.
I will accept compensation and keep my perimeter guarded, smiling.
I can post grades and nod my head, I can speak quietly in a room full of noisemakers and be heard,
I can connect or not connect,
whichever is best.
Considering the adequate remuneration, yes,
give me the name of Teacher, Again.
9/4/18
See me, I’m the ocean, why the sky is so blue, but I have reds and yellows and green colors too.
The sky eats my reds and my yellows and greens and all that it shows are blue in-betweens.
And your love is the ocean, the sky is still blue, and paddling round it
You beautiful two
Who knew where it started or knows how it mends,
It’s reflections of oceans,
And it never ends.
Love you forever,
C. Ray
June 20, 2017
Happy 2nd anniversary
In darkness, she staggers through a bleary evening
that never stops until morning when she is done
fighting to breathe and
eagerly readies herself to leave
the filth that she barely lives in.
C.Ray 3/19/2018
Our lives have been
rising and falling together; a feather drifts in mesoscale
and we, the fowl mites
travel.
CLR
Motionless, directionless, focus-less
Fear grasps at polluted air--
Unless and until focus, direction and motion
take hold.
Then the relief
through change.
Comes this transition every time I move--
which for a moment replaces fear,
who nevertheless
will call again soon.
clr April 2017
If I had known how you would die,
would I have loved you more?
No--
For whatever you were living,
you were also dying for.
And
You are just a sample
of things that I have lost
no matter if I loved you,
take note our paths have crossed.
CLR 4/17
for Grandaddy:
There’s a tiny window
between birth and death
(The day you are born and you die.)
They are minutes and hours
Dressed up like years
To say our hello and goodbye.
Hello in the morning goodbye at night,
The moments between them,
You work and you fight.
To breathe and to live
to one hundred and one,
that's what you did,
and that's what you done.
clr 2017
Life
I have my
Mother’s gnarled hands,
I have my
Sister’s feet.
I have my Indian
Grandpa’s face
With family,
I’m replete
Between the ears
I’m crazy Rich,
My allergies
are Brian,
I have my daddy’s
Close set eyes
I got them without Tryin’
AND
I have two sons so proud and true
With one I got a daughter.
I have an AA, BA, MA
Way more than I ‘oughter
I have one ex-husband
Who doesn’t love me much
And four best friends
Who do.
I own a condo in Puyallup
And rent in tinbucktoo
I have this singsong in my head
That makes me rhyme and paint.
I practice kindness every day,
But I sure ain’t a saint.
I have two dogs with lots
Of treats
Followed by lots of messes
And all this stuff I have to show
I Caused with
“No’s” and “Yesses.”
2/1/2017
Where do our broken
people go when they step off
this round and round and round
existence we approve of?
Around the corner,
down the hall, behind the 7-11
and in your mirror,
where all our broken people wait
for something or someone
to change them.
CLR 2016
"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Settling in
Settling on,
Settling over and around.
Settling up,
Settling for,
but never
Settling down.
CLR 2000
Source Smiled
and I saw it smile
and saw it smile again and again.
And again,
until nothing else mattered but to see Source smile.
CRAY 2016
