2 under 3
John and Caroline
1 plus 1
equals 3
or more
when you
add a boy
and girl
to a young
couple both
who work
outside the
home as is
done today
you take him
and i take her
after day-care
after au pair
after nana
after nanny
we are so tired
there will never
be another
well maybe
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 27, 2014
The resurrected
Jesus was a man
and not a Zombie.
He was raised to be
alive, and not both
dead and living when
God seized him by his soul
and set him free.
He was not thirsting
after blood, was no
Vampire, did not become
immortal, but eternally
had life–there is, you know,
a difference… Jesus
spoke and drank and ate
with all his students,
the Disciples, though
they had all run away
when those with sword
and club, the Roman
soldiers, came to show
this upstart Rabbi
Caesar still was Lord.
The undead try to scare,
but Jesus said
“Have peace–you do not need
to be afraid.”
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, April 21, 2014
Too many people ask
Do you believe in God?
I ask only
Does God believe in you?
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 30, 2014
The paint was a rich brown with tones
of red. The brush was wide and held
the paint along the nylon tips
without a drip.
The wood I painted had been done
before, but years ago, and not
done very well. The wood had split
exposing ugliness.
The wet paint spread and filled the holes.
The boards soon showed no trace of sin.
I woke, but forced myself to sleep
some more–to paint again.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 15, 2014
I will give up writing poems for Lent.
I will give up eating desserts for Lent.I will give up sex for Lent.
I will give up thinking about sex for Lent.
I will give up lying for Lent.
I will give up bragging for Lent.
I will give up exaggerating for Lent.
I will give up self-centeredness for Lent.
I will give up self-denial for Lent.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, March 5, 2014 (Ash Wednesday)
My basement desk is extra large
because my grandfather who gave
it to me was a builder who
rolled out blueprints for many huge
commercial projects on it. Save
for one lamp, it is now piled high.
My double garage had a space
for the riding mower, but it
is now in the new backyard shed.
The room around the hybrid cars
now holds all of the tools that fit
on walls and shelves and floor instead.
Our Storage Unit’s deep and wide.
We can’t remember what’s inside.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Feb. 14, 2014
Old Salem Cemetery
No gaudy spire
of a wealthy patriarch;
no spreading plot of a family
blessed with many offspring.
The bachelor, the single woman,
the infant, the child–each in a choir
that someday will rise up and sing
along with the married folks.
The brass bands gather
and play across the rolling grounds
each Easter morning: trumpet,
trombone, euphonium…harmony.
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Feb. 9, 2014
loving parents but the way they
read the bible meant no dancing
on my own after college I
took lessons to please my new wife
i was never good but had fun
for years moving with the music
now my knees and back restrict me
to a slow shuffle and a sigh
but in my sleep i leap and fly
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Feb. 6, 2014
Foresight (For Jack)
“Near-“or “far-” I never knew
which was which. I could see
things up close–that I knew…
but all was a blur away
in the distance.
I recall
my first pair of glasses. I
told my mom I could see all
leaves high up in the park tree,
that had been before a mere
mass of dark green.
Did the word
“Nerd” land on my little ear
when in school? I did not care:
now I could see all the world…
– Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, Jan. 25, 2014
The acid smog in the air
rains into rivers
and joins factory sludge
and field chemicals
on their way to the sea.The obscene slime
spreads from ocean
to ocean and from coast
to oily coast.The air cannot wash its
hair because trees and shrubs
have not been replanted
most places by most people.Wood and coal and oil burn on,
rivers are damned, mostly
unfresh water remains
turning a blue planet brown.We humans might see
our world changing,
but we see screens
and windshields more
than we see our skies.
[Thanks to Elizabeth Kolbert for her
two recent New Yorker articles
reporting on the research for this.]
Steve Shoemaker, Urbana, IL, January 4, 2014
Views from the Edge 