Bev Tappan

Category: Observation Poems

just some things observed

  • FAMILY: CHANGES

    What are these trees with pale and blotchy skin,
    Like adolescents scarred with acne,
    Whose brown Christmas tree balls hang down in early
    Springtime above the hired
    Van outside my son’s condo window?

    Rain suddenly splatters
    The sill from gray cloud ghosts rushing
    Under blue sky and scattered
    Cumulus ahead of tree tossing March
    Winds. It is time to get moving.

    The bed has left and the crib, but still I stand,
    Abstracted by castor marks
    In carpets and one hanger swinging in a closet.
    This is a sycamore husk
    The seeds carried elsewhere to go on growing.

  • FAMILY: TIME SHARING

    Borrowing my daughter’s apartment
    For a family snowshoeing holiday,
    We find appliances intractable.
    In her absence the coffeemaker
    Does not start, the dishwasher
    Stalls and the gas oven
    Ominously clicks before warming.
    Worst of all, the satellite
    Antenna transmits static.

    Possessions, more permanent than persons,
    Protest abandonment by their owners.
    As our dog barks and assaults
    The pen when we depart,
    Her vacuum cleaner coils
    Its cord around our ankles,
    Trash barrels flip their lids, and
    The security alarm rings
    Unceasingly when we set it.

    An audience is sought by the copper
    Musical antique car
    Playing “On the Road Again.”
    Ruby wine glasses wink
    And blush to catch our eyes.
    Things, less transient than humans,
    Fear people may disappear
    Leaving them like seaglass on the beach
    To be repossessed at. public auctions.

  • FAMILY: A WALK WITH A THREE-YEAR-OLD

    We stoop to look at ant hills.
    Her small finger closes the holes.

    Toting their eggs and leafbits,
    Ant workers scurry this way and that, unperturbed.

    “I break them,” she announces.
    In her other hand she holds three straggly

    Buttercups and one lupine.
    Clovers or Bouncing Bet she tosses aside.

    Tickle grass lifts her chin.
    “Let me make me laugh, Grammie.”

    I upend the stem
    To prod a hunting spider, who toad-hops

    Into poison ivy.
    Her ziplock sandals pursue a narrow

    Cement wall, a childsized
    Promenade under a hemlock. Last year’s conelets,

    Brittle and seedless, cling
    To the studs and joists of this cool dark chamber.

    Rapelling past its apertures
    On slender nylon climbing ropes swing

    Casual gypsy caterpillars.
    Bon vivants, they have littered the drive with their leavings.

    Relentless Jenny erases them,
    Stamps them into oily exclamation marks on the tartop.

  • FAMILY: BOSTON FLOWER SHOW

    Blown down the parking lot
    We have come in to a forced
    Spring. Through arches of sunny

    Acacia chains we see glimpses
    Of enchanted nooks: Mole’s
    Beloved boat moored

    Below Rat’s shore –
    Sheltered bungalow: a Victorian
    Broad-brimmed hat

    Under an arbor; Farmer
    MacGregor’s rows of lucious
    Lettuce eyed by Peter;

    Max the wild thing
    Starting a rumpus in the dark
    Forest corner; a cypress-

    Cooled Moorish patio
    Reflected in the tiled pool and
    Helicon beaks from Hawaii

    Garnishing luau fruits.
    But most alluring are jellybean
    Walks between marshmallow cauliflowers,

    A cabbage patch doll,
    Decorated carrot cakes and
    Cookie bushes inside a gingerbread

    Fence: These entrall
    The children and invalids in wheelchairs
    Propelled by aged relatives

    My mother and I, sharing
    One hundred and fifty years,
    Buy pussywillows as we leave.

  • NEW ENGLAND: A NEW ENGLANDER REFLECTS ON THE CHALLENGER SEVEN

    In what ways did we celebrate
    The adventurous leap of our space heros
    And heroines into another dimension.
    Their giant step into eternity?

    We who watched and watched and watched again
    The cataclysmic moment of their going,
    Invested with our childhood dreams
    Died along with them, and derring-do,
    That last desperate expedition,
    Rehearsed our own inevitable end:
    Dust to stardust metamorphosis.

    Later we climbed in winter sunlight,
    Leaving bootmarks on the dust of snow
    Clambered over windsnapped oaks,
    Strolled in shadowy hemlock hallways
    Along black waters chanting, churning
    In and out of gleaming ice,
    Gazing finally toward the ocean
    Toward those ashes drifting, spiraling
    Into space and out of sight.

    At home we heard a Mozart requiem:
    Energetic strings, pulsing brass:
    A tribute played to aspirations
    Of seven spirited star sailors.
    In these ways have we mourned them
    And we still do grieve for them:
    Their happy camaradarie:
    Enthusiasts elected for excellence
    With vibrant eyes and winning smiles.

  • JAPAN POEMS: SIGNALING DIETES

    Shinto shrines in Kyoto
    Celebrate rites of spring:
    Tall tourists, compact
    Blacksuited businessmen, and geishas
    Graceful in pink silk
    Stack prayersticks like firewood,
    Arrange on altars carp,
    Orange pyramids, nests
    Of eggs, flowers and autographed
    Bottled sake in rows

    Firemen in red helmets
    Drag hoses close
    To a bonfire draped with evergreens.
    Smiling priests beckon
    Parishioners to wash their hands
    And rinse their mouths at springs.
    Like ibis lifting white
    Wings, black-hatted holymen
    Raise waterfall sleeves,
    Bow, intone, and chant.

    They loft arrows to four
    Compass points over temple
    Roofs. Inflaming cupids,
    They pierce the heart of the pyre.
    A torch, temple ignited,
    Is paraded to climactic union with fresh-cut cedar swags.
    Smoke blossoms and billows
    As laughing priests ladle
    Water onto greens. Smoke

    Tickles the nostrils of the gods
    Until fiery tongues, erupting
    Arouse a passionate inferno
    Consuming the proffered prayersticks.
    Ejaculating heavenward the petitions
    Of another Golden Week.
    An ocean away, on a cloudless
    Mountain top, a radio
    Telescope listens for replies
    From other bubbles of the universe.