William Kruse

I have wished these teens would leave the site
and not 'bass' on my street all night.
Have made suggestions from the door,
made it clear I would take no more.
...

Since the Lord Himself is my trail boss,
I’m pretty well taken care of.
He sees to my grazing and water rights
and all the other needs of a maverick like me.
...

I'm jolted out of bed
by a gem of inspiration
and I scrounge for pen and paper,
in quiet desperation.
...

The carnival barker cried, 'Step right up, folks!
The most stupendous show of the midway!
He tries to work and cannot think;
he tries to think and cannot work.
...

I
sit here
and try to think
of all the beautiful
...

The smell of the ocean fills the air
on the rugged coast of Maine,
where the Portland Head Light
stands its constant vigil.
...

High in the mountains,
Deep in the winter,
the creek cuts its course
through the snow.
...

Stands a pile of rocks, this ancient, pagan altar;
wind-worn, time-worn and stained
with the blood of countless sacrifices:
a monument to the memories of those lives
...

Too stunned to run, I watched the ball pop
straight up and seem to stop.
The irksome noises of the fans
were muffled in that timeless span.
...

I never played the game,
although I always wished I could.
Well, I played in Little League one year
but wasn't any good.
...

Sometimes,
when the skies are bare,
and the fields are bare,
and the trees are bare, I am bare:
...

The lights of my home town
fluctuate in blurry brilliance,
little rainbow bursts of neon
bobbing brightly in the night.
...

I’ve been taken, overwhelmed and impressed by you
And I won’t be satisfied until I’m possessed by you
Until I ‘m held by your charms and I lie in your arms,
I’m completely obsessed by you.
...

In a crystalline sky on a black velvet night
in a diamond-wisp of a cloud
hangs the moon, as close to the earth as it gets:
so bright, so blue, so proud.
...

Look upon the Parthenon, upon the Coliseum.
Stare in awe and wonder at the Pyramids and Sphinx.
Search the ancient temples of the Aztecs, Incas, Mayans.
Study the old empires through what they left behind.
...

Incandescent fluorescents,
lights for which we pay less cents.
We are told they are made by a trick of the trade
to give us an amiable essence.
...

Color the past an off-shade of haze,
a thin, plastic film laid over what was.
Color it happy or lonely, but gone.
Color the past an off-shade of love.
...

I just had time to see you go
before the tear
ran down my cheek.
...

A flicker flew above the grass,
barely aloft in flight,
toward home on the horizon
to feed and spend the night.
...

I could never write this poem,
I could never sing this song,
I could never find the subject or the pattern
or the rhythm or the reason or the rhyme...
...