Michael Estabrook- Three Poems

Brief Bio Michael Estabrook:

Retired now writing more poems

working more outside

just noticed 2 Cooper’s hawks staked out

in our yard or above it I should say

which explains the disappearing chipmunks.

Mom’s Snake Dream

I’m underground

the walls are covered with tiles

blue tiles

like in a subway station

so I guess I’m in a subway

but some of the tiles have holes in them

and there are snakes

everywhere snakes

some snakes crawl through

the holes in the tiles

my father shows up

comes walking towards me

come to save me

and he’s stepping on the snakes

he doesn’t have a choice

they cover the ground

Heat

She got so angry at me for turning down the heat
2 degrees when no one was in the house
yelling at me like I was
a little boy so I vowed to leave it
the hell alone, not worth being scolded.
But alas a week later I’m back to my old tricks
stealing into the hallway
to the thermostat
turning it down a degree or 2 looking
over my shoulder all the while.
I was raised poor
so I can’t help myself.

Light

So what’s wrong with all this

the shadows in the hallway

splinters of light sneaking out beneath some

of the doors.

Do you have to watch TV all damn night

haven’t you more important things to do

something, anything important?

learn something earn something

a university degree perhaps

or some money

paint the garage

clean the gutters, repair the shutters

pull some weeds, call your mother

anything.

So what’s behind those shadowy doors

in the hallway

do you even know?

have you tried to figure it out?

can’t you look?

grab a flashlight and take a look?

No, of course not, no.

You’re too busy sitting on the sofa

watching crime mysteries on TV

for crying out loud.

What would Dad say about you

wasting so much time?

Or Grandma Sadie

What would Thomas More do if he knew

or FDR or Caesar

or Dante, Michelangelo, Mozart

Ernest Hemingway or Jesus . . .

What?