The Shadow of Shadow of a Doubt

What if you look up
and there is a woman

dead hanging from a noose
from your ceiling would you

scream would you ask her
why and realize she can’t talk

what if it was shadows
your room is scary

as a kid anything is
a monster in the dark

but as a man nothing
frightens except her

heads cocked blue arms
dangle slow spin still

pretty pink lipstick
such beauty should murder

suicide before death

Ripples

Ripples roll on the lake absorb

into banks, climb the pines
and shake their tops, leaves

float down to the surface overlap
the lilies build brown green yellow
piles all around the side. Ripples

rock the water top distort
the white, blue sky clouds
make them round and wave
the heavens flag. From the bottom

looking up ripples rumble, dot
of the sun flashes off and on
eclipsed by the source of commotion:

heart attack ripples a body convulses
face down spasms and splashes

and fights for breath in the middle

of the lake like a fish flaps on deck.