It Began

It began
with the smile on Jake's face.

Someone dropped their keys
Someone else fainted.

Jake kept smiling.

The people on the sidewalk
felt their neck hair stand on end
and their skin tingle.

Many looked to the sky.

Up on the 30th floor,
a woman turned into a sparrow
and flew away into the clouds.


-Jim DuBois
March 30, 2016
(revised some old scraps of writing from the 90s)

Dreamscape #1, Final Page

-Jim DuBois

Dreamscape #1, Page 8

-Jim DuBois

Wade in the Mill River

2 chipmunks, a duck
and the second wade in the Mill river
of the season.
Now, waiting
for almost anything
to happen.


-Jim DuBois
May 14, 2010

Still with those two dogs

I lay there with the two dogs,
watching them sleep on the floor
in the hallway.

The older one stretched up
and then lay down again,
and I saw the tiredness
in his scrawny legs,
and saw the scraggliness of his coat
which happens to old dogs.

I thought about him as a puppy,
how energetically he chased
my brother and me from room to room,
and we would jump up together on the big chair,
- since we were little too -
as he came rushing in.

He's really lasted a long time,
hasn't he?
Despite the way we all
ignore him a little more lately,
despite years of sleeping in hallways,
despite the advance of age,
he keeps living well.

The other dog isn't as old
and isn't as spirited.

If he didn't have
the first dog for company
(I think of them as brothers)
he wouldn't make it.

The younger dog
is fatter than I remember him
and he whimpers as I pet him.

Then I woke up
and remembered:
those dogs died
a long time ago.

But,
I guess I'm still there sometimes,
still pleased to be with those dogs,
to be just another living thing,
resting in some random spot,
not left out of the tapestry of life,
not forgotten,
bur preserved by the fleetingness
of the moment.


-Jim DuBois
May 30, 2002
Jan 22, 2014

You are a Spider

You are a spider
You are capturing
moments of love
Your web breaks easily
Luckily, you were made
to build webs well


-Jim DuBois
c2006

There was that time

There was that time
we decided
to camp
up on Bare mountain,
to sneak off the path
and set up camp,

But we didn't know
how to make
a good fire,
so the smoke
kept stinging
our eyes
all night long,

But we weren't sleeping
anyway
because the sound
of the chipmunks
scurrying around
scared us,
as did the thought
of bears.

I tried counting
backwards from 500
to get to sleep,
but kept forgetting
what number I was on
and it didn't work.

We maybe slept an hour
that night
and when I got up,
you were not around
so I went looking
up the trail
and there you were.

We had forgotten
to bring water
but we walked about
3 hours anyway,
drank at the park,
And walked 3 hours back.

All along
our hike,
we kept seeing
all these
different frogs.
They kept
magically appearing,
in the trail,
in the swamps and trees.

Then we settled down
for another horrible night,
But after an hour,
we had the good sense
to give up,
pack up in the dark
and hike down
the mountainside
in the pitch black night.

We slept so well
at my apartment
and were happier,
but I still miss
those magic frogs.


-Jim DuBois
August 14, 2013

Grandfather Turtle, and Snake Hunting Near Gregor's Crossing

"Thank you,"
I say
as the first snake
of the season
slithers into view
ahead of me
on the dirt path.

I slow down.

I take its picture.

I start to think
about all the animals
I have seen
down here
near Gregor's Crossing,
the snakes,
frogs,
owls,
ducks,
fish,
chipmunks,
and beavers.

And one time,
when the evening light
was slanting
in just the right
way to illuminate
the streambed
clearly to me
on the bank,
I saw this
giant 3-foot long
turtle
swimming along placidly.
So I followed along,
tried to get pictures
but none came out,
wondered where he came
from,
thought about age
and survival.

There were many people
nearby that day,
walking,
swimming,
enjoying the day,
but none of them
noticed the turtle,
and he seemed
to sense
when they were
nearby
in the water,
and turn back.

Old Grandfather Turtle,
I thought,
swimming near
Gregor's Crossing,
appearing only
when the light
and time are right,
appearing only to those
who can notice,
who can be silent
or still for
the right amount
of time.
Not noticeable
by the hectic modern
world of humans,
but still swimming
below the surface,
holding to the old ways,
the peaceful
and silent ways,
the enduring ways.


-Jim DuBois
April 18, 2013


PS - Two days before I put up this poem, I went for a walk, saying to myself, "I will notice the present moment this whole walk." And then I saw the turtle again! I got a few pictures.

Dragons Fear

A Blackout Poem.

-Jim DuBois

"Instant Jim Classic"

I guess the bullfrogs
don't care
if it's raining.


-Jim DuBois
July 15, 2012

Tiny Sand Frogs

Turning over
a canoe on the beach

I discover
    reveal

a multitude
of tiny sand frogs,
(five could fit on my pinky)

tiny sand frogs,
descendants
of the glorious stars,
constructions
of tinier atoms

tiny sand frogs
leap about
in a tiny horde
after I turn over
a canoe
on the beach


-Jim DuBois
July 15, 2012

Wet Squirrel

Wet squirrel
hopping across the lawn in a thunderstorm,
do you get lonely too?


-Jim DuBois
June 3, 2012

The White Ferret

We went out
onto my back porch
on our way to go camping,
and there was this
white ferret
kind of eagerly sniffing
around the door.
We asked at the
other apartments
if they knew
anything about it,
but we learned
nothing
so we made
a snap decision
and took it with us
on our trip.

Now it mostly rained
that trip,
and we kept the ferret
in the car,
and tried feeding it
different things.
It seemed to like
jelly the best.
It jumped around
in the car,
and slept a lot.

We found a fish-hook
and a broken-down house
up in the hills,
and made a lot of jokes
at night.

Then we left
early on sunday
in the rain,
and when we got back
discovered that
my upstairs neighbor
had owned two white ferrets
who had escaped
onto the roof.
The other one
had fallen off and died,
but ours
got to go on
a strange trip
it probably
never expected.


-Jim DuBois
March 28, 2012

I like jars

I like jars
I'm 36
I'm your secret boyfriend

Do you want
to see my antlers?


-Jim DuBois
Jan 14, 2006

Early Morning

Early morning is like
    a foreign country,
populated mainly
    by birds
      and
      empty soda cans



-Jim DuBois
April 26,1999

Spring Peepers

I heard the first spring peepers
the night after
_______ got put
in the psyche ward
at Cooley-dick

Somehow those little frogs
didn't get the news
that life has a hard edge,
somehow those little frogs
kept singing


-Jim DuBois
April 2, 1998

Art

Sometimes you have to
tell your story
through art or poems
just to get a sense
of how magnificent
it really was.

-Jim DuBois
June 25, 2011

Gone

Gone,
for a little while
playing flute by the swamp
-- only the birds knew me


-Jim DuBois
June 5, 2011

Undercover

Under cover of
the wild birds
singing at dawn,
I can't ever be
who I used to be,
anymore.


-June 18, 2006

Insomniac Math

Let's see...
I couldn't fall asleep right away
so it was maybe 430 or 5
then there were those weird dreams that kept waking me up
plus those fing dogs barking in the morning
and now what the fuck was that?
I think mom or dad just came into the extra room I'm staying in
probably to get something she or he forgot
but possibly just to accidentally wake me

now it's 1146
so it adds up to probably 6 1/2 restless hours
if I was lucky
but it's more likely to equal
that I'm tired and irritated
and the day is screwed.

Sounds like my brother and nephew are here now though
and at least I'll get to eat a lot
plus I got more sleep than the 3 hours I kept fearing
so I'm probably not screwed as hard as I thought.


-Jim DuBois
Nov 25, 2010