Opposites

I guess it's true, opposites do attract,
how else do you explain such stupid love?
When I look in between your two brown locks
and see those icy blue eyes submitting
the future that my bright green eyes defy.
I think of the day when you maybe think
a little harder about tomorrow,
a little softer about that asshole.

Cause our similarity divides us:
we both pine for the one who we don't have.
But it's cool! Don't worry about it babe,
We're opposites remember? I can
wonder while you're off sleeping without me,
just why do opposites have to attract?

-Dann

Roots

Ansel Adams

Like your hissing reflection
swerving the turf;
you too search for nourishment.

All to supply a boney elm
or a supple palm,
an earnest stump at least.

But unfathomed heavens
linger on earthly shades,
the forgotten shades
of the trampled lonely.

Illuminated, however briefly,
you've made it big now.
With the help of light and luck
you're a specimen, a legend.

Appreciated once by the sustained
but in a heroic flash
now millions more.

-Dann

My Mom Wasn't Jewish

When I met my cousin for the first time I was seven
and we looked almost identical, much like our fathers.
Though when they met again after seven years, they cried at
their dad's funeral; unsure why he had to die for me
to have finally met my twin cousin for the first time.

-Dan

Elephant Rock

Half packed for college and running for elephant rock,
with cold feet I ran through the secluded forest.

Hidden over flourished meadows and behind drizzling creeks
through dark openings and along carved paths.

The beaten roads didn't necessarily lead anywhere,
It was a maze of fallen branches and exposed roots

shadowed by 20 foot maples, elms, and birches.
I decided elephant rock would make sense again.

Because I could never ask my mother,
why she wouldn't let me walk home from school.

Or why I couldn't cross the street alone;
she didn't have to know I scraped my knee

in the middle of an empty forest
that day with Josh. She didn't need to know.

He told me to "stop here," on a pristine horizon where I saw
canopies never ending, the top of a giant broccoli tree.

The leaves a coalition of green,
they flickered in the breeze.

But we rolled ranch dressing down a cliff
to see the splatter of white redeem the regular.

The ketchup bottle from my basement portrayed
convictions on the chalk of their tennis court.

Our forged hopes and childish idols
plagued an in-ground pool and us no longer.

There on this rock, walls confining
disintegrated, freedom was there!

I reached for it alone in my bitterness.
I wanted so much more than my fearful nausea.

The mosquitos were relentless though, I decided to get the hell out.
Searching for light, an opening, pounded dirt pointed to respite

Down Suffolk Road, Elizabeth's house
dwarfed me across the perfectly paved street.

And when I made it back I continued packing stupidly content
with my courage. I almost found elephant rock one last time.

I got on the plane the next day waving to my parents,
I began climbing the jagged clouds.

-Dann

I Remember

Knowing I'd be
four forever.

Hanging like
a four-year-old; spine
molded toe to head
on a paisley sofa.

Velcroed light-ups bouncing
off the window like red
cheeks filling slowly.

The white blank ceiling,
marveled at how much cleaner
the room looked that way.

And noticing for once the rosy
red candles on the mantel.

Least until Count Chocula,
the cereal commercial, ended.

Eureka's Castle returned
to muppet my bright window.

-Dann