Zamboni Dance

zamboni pair

before the third

Grown graceful twins

Prodigy of

street cleaner and

riding mower

Your swathing tongues

create a looking

glass with each pass

our sins smaller

until your dance

must be over

2/08

copyright 2008 Trevor Haug

from "West of Vancouver, Poems from the Island"

The Heavy Door

The heavy door to November

is held open by the saints

"Come in," they insist

-short Italian monks

They show me their liqueurs

"You will need these for the storms"

And I was afraid

that colour would never return

It leaves the trees and enters my cheeks

15/11/07

copyright 2007 Trevor Haug

from "West of Vancouver, Poems from the Island"

The Bird Feeder

My new tractor-green cylinder

Pez dispenser for sky musicians

Attracts only flightless acrobats

Grey Cirque de Soleil escapee squirrel

Hangs with monkey tail

Robbing the offering

Like an illegal lover

After dark, more obscenities

A tinsel-eyed raccoon

Has my John Deere green

Father's Day gift on the fecund earth

Gnawing and drunkenly oblivious

To the cursing flashlight

At last, sobered by my approach

Hurries to a forgotten appointment

I'll hang my scarred green gift again tomorrow

But even in the mirror-bright morning

These high church warblers

Will refuse my oiled sunflower virgin seed

Stained by squirrel scent

Spoiled by raccoon slobber

31/8/06

copyright 2006 Trevor Haug

from "Poems from the Hedge"

The Mango Goddess

My wife is the mango goddess

not by birthright or decree

but by a local democracy

When she moves through the fruit section

squeezing, watching, and listening,

the locals ask her

about the qualities of mangos

"Why do they ask me these things?"

she asks in a Jewish tone

"Because you are the mango goddess, " I reply

"But I don't look remotely..., I'm Irish,

I should know about potatoes,

Why don't they ask me about potatoes?"

"Because you are the mango goddess, " I reply

She knows the difference between ripe and rotten

She passes judgement on raw and rare

Her village is as global as her vision

She commands the economy

and pays her subjects well

When she is out of the grocer's

and in my arms late at night

she asks me why I chose this night

for toast and tea

"Because you are the mango goddess," I reply

9/97

copyright Trevor Haug 1997

from "Poems from the Hedge"

Tulip Yellow Moon

Tulip yellow moon

the children looked for you

this afternoon

while you were hiding

waiting for the sky

to finish bleeding

Then you rose and hung

from a dark pine bough

04

copyright 2004 Trevor Haug

from "Tulip Yellow Moon, Verses for a Child-like Tribe"

Spring for Beginners

She cannot yet turn over

so she sits on the lawn 

in her car seat while the twins 

and the neighbor's cat

orbit her world

She cannot help but see

what we have been missing - 

the budding maple

six stories high

an apartment for blackbirds 

and mourning doves

Beyond, against the blue,

mute clouds

try to invent a dance

that we fail to imagine

because we rarely look up

Her eyes move to

her first movie screen,

the side of the white house

that shows all of our shadows

in the afternoon

The cat and she

hear the trucks growl

as they gear down

to pass through

town

She feels the same slow breeze

that feathers all our faces

while New England greens

04

copyright 2004 Trevor Haug

from "Poems of New England"

Boabab

I ask a local how old is the tree

60 years, he says with little confidence

I'm thinking at least 200

Either way, it is beyond our span

Another tells me it is hollow inside

and can hide a whole village

So it has uses

beyond holding my mouth open

And I ask myself,

Why would such a village

need to hide?

07

copyright 2007 Trevor Haug

from "Poems of Africa"