Just a Note

Not a valentine or a poem,

trying to tell you in a new way

what I tell you so often.

Shall I say, “I have seen the lonely men in shirtsleeves,

Leaning out of windows . . .”?

J. Alfred, fearful, couldn’t go on,

but I know you would ask

a lonely man in shirtsleeves directions

and he would probably point with his pipe

pleased with himself that such a pretty woman

with a soft voice and kind eyes

liked him because you did,

and I wasn't jealous, except a little

because of the way he looked at you walk away,

but it is such a nice walk.

And For All That

“I feel nature is encroaching on me.”

This said pleasantly, signaling it is time

for me to mow or whip or pull.

I might explain, but don’t,

that we will never win.

I humor her and mow and whip and pull and

pick up dead branches just enough

for the illusion of order.

Wait a week and every cleared place

has grown a stubble of weed and vine.

In a year, clearing will be a memory.

The backs of my hands tell the same story.

I could tell her, but don’t, that I too feel

nature encroaching on me.

Edward Garcia has published many reviews and articles in The Dallas Morning News and other publications, including The Texas Observer, The Texas Humanist, Pawn Review, Texas Books in Review, Tex!, County Line Magazine, and Southwest Historical Quarterly.  He is represented in Texas in Poetry 2, Texas Short Stories 2, Literary Dallas, and in two anthologies of writing by DCCCD faculty and staff, Out of Dallas and Voices from Within.  Retired from teaching composition, literature, and creative writing in the Dallas County Community College District, he has an undergraduate degree and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master’s from the Ohio State University. He lives on the upper east side of Texas with his wife Rica.