How do we connect nowadays? With our thumbs, it seems and without looking at each other. So how to tell if we’re getting through? Which makes it more important than ever to choose our words carefully. And listen - there’s nothing like being heard. Better yet: understood.

In this collection, I explore a variety of ways we do and do not connect. Not only with others but within ourselves - who we think we are, where we're at, and what we want.

           Certain I knew what it was
   Thought I was good at it
                      Used to enjoy it 
         the back and forth of it all
    More back than forth these days
All coming at me (when do they breathe) 
	Listening a lost art
	Interest, curiosity 
       Things of the past. Only
                 an impatient waiting
		for one’s turn
			to get back to 
	what’s on their mind   What I say
    merely a cue, a jumping-off point 
for them to grab hold. Then off they go.

	 I call that a Hijack.

On a phone call last week
Water went down the wrong way.
I started coughing - “Excuse me,” I croaked.
	            She kept talking
	Five minutes later I recovered
	            and she was still talking.
	                   Never knew I was gone.

What to do, what to do. 
	Turn off my phone?
		Stay in my room?
	Dear Abby is tired 
                  of this topic.
	        So am I.

A good talk
with a good friend
can help solve the mysteries
of me. For I understand
myself in increments, pieces
picked up as I live, sort
through, and put in place.

What I learn from my friend
stays with me, tucked in my
back pocket as I go about
my day, walk the dog,
stop at the market.
Each insight a gift
to mull over,

run my fingers along
its edges and crevices,
so I can decipher how
it fits, where I lie
in the whole picture
to bring me that much
closer to knowing myself.

Hate ‘em
Don’t wanna go
But If I must
Pretty good at it

Nice to meet you   What do you do
Tell me about it Oh really Is that so
I didn’t know   Well how about that
Think I’ll get more cheese thingees
Nice talking to you

Server offers intriguing thought
I want to respond
I get interrupted
by a shriek

O M G   It’s been too long   So busy
You look great   I mean   I just   I know
You know   Who knows   Did you hear
NO   Just between us   Did she   Will they
We must   We should   Where’d you buy it?

Escape  To   Kitchen
Silverware   Soap Suds   Silence
Another option:
Coloring with the kids

At one time
they must have had dreams
 
To grow tall, win every prize 
fly in outer space
Did no one show them
what to do with dreams
They don’t happen on their own

In the meantime 
day after day

 lies the loneliness of home 
where no one waits
Or no home at all
Nothing to look forward to 
just keep going

From time to time 
I pass them by and keep going

But not today. Simple thing really...
... stop, offer a kind word,
 to let a man 
and the child still inside him 
know

I see you. 
I see you both