Sing out Sister/Carry on Brother
(you are not broken)
Superhero you
armed with only love against
the undertow of darkness / each kindness kindly
given back at twice the giver’s cost / upturn the plot
of every plan against you / your enemy’s eyes
just yours in self-reflection / so consider such
before breaking bad / Are you fed, sister? Are you
fit, brother? Then feed someone / heal someone /
but don’t neglect the eternal Tao / still wriggle-writhing
under the rubble: bees / stars / sunflowers / song—
what I’m saying is / don’t let the mess obscure the miracles
You will never get everything right /
you will not slay every dragon /
but one lit torch can illuminate / a grave
injustice / and set the world on fire
Life: the self-help book with no good
answers / only did-I-do-good questions
So then / did you do good?
My Face in the Mirror in the Morning
At 70 I plagiarize myself,
my Zoomie image time-stamped
like an unearthed fossil framed
within a complex sequence of events,
more proof of a fabricated self,
a self contingent—
Yet when kissed and presented with coffee
I suddenly beam with the blood-rush
of youth, a new and improved product
derived from the trusted original,
a facial fiction bestowed upon those whose
clocks run fast, upon those who’ll forget
what they’ve seen today
tomorrow—
Tim Rudolph is a poet living in Santa Cruz, CA.