the price of memories

what outside influence

intrudes upon us surreptitiously

stealthily

stealing our breath like carbon monoxide

letting us do something we don’t want to

explain 

as the soaring price of

precious metals seeps into our consciousness

heirlooms have found their way

reversing the gold rush

to pawn shops

coin dealers

hotel lobbies

instead of into jewelry boxes

dresser drawers of nieces

or nephews 

no dust or danger

no pack horse or partner

searching for Sutter’s Mill

just a paved strip mall parking lot

and a sandwich bag of rings, lockets, chains

the remains, the props of the past

the stuff of personal history 

more than gold traded but

the memories weigh easy

on the digital scale

the tipping point, the balance

some logic that someone else

would just stake their claim 

after we’re gone 

Barry DeCarli

April 12, 2012

Copyright 2012 Barry DeCarli

like father, like son

wanting to pour poetry
from a bottle
of Pinot Grigio
to uncork the perfect pairing
of words and emotion
in an untitled document
trying to escape the collision
of headache and hope with
the right metaphor
stoking my muse there in the wine
my poem scrapes against the easiness
of inkjet black on white

he stood unsteadily
the car was his vehicle
driven with a practiced recklessness
he sought to slake a more primal thirst
I never understood
as the bourbon burned his throat
then softly drenched
his drought of dreams
for a while he found forgiveness
fulfillment there in the bottle

his Oldsmobile keyed with barbed wire
while taking out the farmer’s fence

there was nothing easy about his poetry
of rubber and speed
steel and noise

Barry DeCarli
April 15, 2010 (6)
Copyright 2010 Barry DeCarli

like a ghost

like an invisible cloud
I sneak across your life
like a ghost
with no place to haunt
I watch and remember
secret handshakes
and passwords
I gaze through your days
and nights
unseen
I linger just near enough
to dream again
then
like a whisper of wind
I say goodbye unheard
unseen
like a ghost
I'm gone

Barry DeCarli
From Of Sun And Rain
Copyright 1972 Barry DeCarli