The Close Guilt; 2021-1861

 

Who bears the close guilt

       for friendship severed 

              by distant attack on Fort Sumter?

 

The Close Guilt
2021-1861 
Bob Komives 
 

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2021

The Close Guilt; 2021-1861  :: 2102

 

A Morning Among These Days

As a morning among these days ends,
a few blocks from our home
a peaceful protest march begins and ends.

As friends and neighbors march,
we stay home to mourn
a sudden, profound grief for loss of a friend.

News of death came unanticipated as we celebrated.
Separate but included,
we participated in a grandson's Continuance
from his 8th grade to high school.

Before this joy 
(and for a third time in three days)
we awoke to a joy: 
news of a newborn among friends and family.

Joy
then joy 
then mourning.

(Half of one day.)

A morning among these days has ended.

A Morning Among These Days 

Bob Komives

Fort Collins © 2020 :: A Morning Among These Days :: 2006

Where is the Way?

An innocent man, Mr. George Floyd:
murdered by someone sworn to protect.
An old-old pharmacy called Lloyd's:
(where I shopped as a kid and once stole a Coca-Cola)
burnt to the ground.
A healthy baby is born
not far from where a virus patient has died.
A seed sprouts.
A beautiful, small bird nibbles at the feeder
as I grieve for the smaller and the larger community
into which I was born.
Family and friends grieve for their innocent loved one.
They are angry.
Angry neighbors protest and march, but ...
Near and distant strangers protest and march, but ...
Two astronauts get to orbit, but ...
They and their families feel proud and relieved, but ...
A grieving nation seeks a sliver of space
a sliver of time to feel good.
New parents can only rejoice.
They do rejoice, but ...
A family tries to grieve together, alone, but ...
A gardener sees the sprout
but feels drained of all power to rejoice.
Everywhere, a smile feels irreverent.
A tear barely dampens the mask.
Exercise fails to exorcise.
Sleep brings no more than another day.
Where is the way?
Where is the way?
Where is the way? 

Where is the Way?  

Bob Komives

Fort Collins © 2020 :: Where is the Way? :: 2005

Moment of Exception

'tis useless to feel useless,
not helpful to feel helpless,
ever more weakening to feel powerless,
spineless to cast blame.
Yet is it not healthful to allow this moment of exception?
I listen in isolation as people I do not know die
isolated from those who do know and love them.
I read of others (too-distant to be neighbors) 
now torn apart then cast together by a tornado.
I watch a tragic movie, 'Planet of the Humans'
feeling useless, helpless, 
powerless--except to cast blame.

Moment of Exception

Bob Komives 

::  Fort Collins © 2020  ::  Moment of Exception  ::  2003  ::

Shoulder Touch

simple hello

complex goodbye

show of friendship

request for support

request for passage

passage granted

fantasy suppressed

fantasy induced

distance reduced

distance demanded

granting forgiveness

forgiveness sought

perfect understanding

absolute bewilderment

guidance offered

guidance needed

request for delay

authorization to proceed

too much noise to speak

too much silence to break

Such a simple gesture

and complex receptor

are the touch to the shoulder

and the shoulder to be touched.

Shoulder Touch

Bob Komives

Fort Collins (c) 1994 :: Shoulder Touch :: ,9428

Distance and Time Expand

Distance and time expand
when we wonder
what plays in mind of another.


Is it fondness,
fear,
suspicion,
judgment harsh, or
judgment kind?

Distance and Time Expand

Bob Komives

Will we (when gap is closed)
return together to where we were?
Have we (apart)
advanced together?
retreated together?


Will we find no such symmetry?
One stuck;
other moved.
Each moved
to different place
by different route.


To now,
here now,
where distance and time shrink to zero.
When (in shy discomfort)
we report on journeys alone. 
 
Here now, 
when discomfort must yield
to celebration or to loss.
Our wondering replaced
by the joys and the pains of knowing.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins  © 2015 :: Distance and Time Expand :: 1501

Warm Thought

Warm thought
ought
to flow
among us
when touch
must
be forgone
for good reason
customary season
necessary distance
of separation
from communication.

Warm Thought

Bob Komives

Thought
ought
to warm us through
till reconnect
at intersect
in time
at place
where we replace
older thought
with young word
and warmer embrace.

Fort Collins © 2002 :: Warm Thought :: 0219

The Letherhome Bridge

Deborah went away today.
We wished her well,
as we did before,
and the befores before that.
Deborah laughed,
said she will not be back.
We try to believe her now,
as we tried before,
and had tried before that.

 

The Letherhome Bridge

Bob Komives

Hernan Cortes tries to tell her
to burn her bridges,
burn them behind her,
as he had burned his ships
so he could not go back to Cuba or Spain
until he conquered Mexico.
But speaking as one of her bridges,
or perhaps the hull of her ship,
I have no desire to burn.
Why should I suffer
just so Deborah can conquer Mexico?
In truth,
she would rather conquer the Extremadura,
back in Spain,
a counter conquest of Cortes,
an adventure that I support,
as I supported her adventure before,
and each adventure before that.
How would my burning further her venture?
Even if she conquers Extremadura,
or Lisbon,
or Brattleboro,
she will want to come back to brag about it.
She will  need a bridge
--even for a short visit.
So, I propose a compromise.
Hernan,
will you get out of her psyche
if I let some weeds grow up,
some bushes to hide me from a distance,
some erosion to my approach?
Let's agree that these are worth a try
-- alternatives to my burning.
They will discourage her return
until she is rich and famous
or in desperate need of a warm bowl of soup.
When the time comes,
I can paint up and fix up,
clear the landscape
so she can see her way back.
For my effort,
I might earn a new plaque.
Or, I might polish up the old one
as I polished it before,
having earned it before that.
With luck,
the old words will still read well:
.......Here sank the ship that let me away.
.......Here rose the bridge that let me back.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2000 :: Letherhome Bridge :: 0003

It Seems a Tiny Step.

Measured in distance,
recorded in time,
it seems a tiny step that took us:

    from warm hug of my anticipation
    to cold shoulder of our reality,

    from slow, good words
    to quick goodbye.

It Seems a Tiny Step.

Bob Komives

Fort Collins © 1999 :: It Seems a Tiny Step :: ,9903