Bus Stops

I like bus stops
because no-one
thinks it's weird
if you stand there
doing nothing
for a long time.


-Jim DuBois
Dec 15, 2002

Backstage

Some days,
you are sitting backstage
from your life
relaxing, eating a bagel,
thinking of what to do next,
waiting for them to play the music
that's your cue
to walk on stage


-Jim DuBois
Oct 21, 2010

Faded

I.

I never thought
those times would
become faded

Or that my voice might be
the spectre of the past
calling out,
reminding you,
reminding me,
of something…

…something indistinct
but important,
locked away in memory,
in childhood,
in these faded photographs
of who we used to be
but can never be again.



II.

I never thought
those times would
become faded,
but these photographs
tell the true story,
that we weren’t who we
thought we were,
and we still aren’t,
and it’s only by a trick
of the mind
and avoidance of the sight of our old bad
hair cuts
that we convince ourselves
that nothing’s changed.



III.

Sometimes something
indistinct can tell us
more than something precise,
because what is essential
is dynamic and can’t be captured…

…we can only be reminded of it,
and experience it anew.

We have memories and feelings
about the past
but no more moments of it.



IV.

I look out the window,
watching the grey weather
quietly drop snow onto Northampton
as I write down some thoughts
that came to me
after looking at these old pictures.

I know that one day,
this moment will also fade,
this ink will disappear and
the paper crumble.

Until then
I just want to say:

We still have time
to be who we’ve
always been.



-Jim DuBois
2005?

Momentary Ambition

Sometimes there's no guide
    Sometimes there's no right or wrong,
        only a momentary ambition
            to climb into your eyes

Sometimes there's nothing to understand
    Sometimes there's no rules,
        only love
            you didn't expect


-Jim DuBois
Dec 8, 1998

The Places I Think You Might Have Been

Walking by the places
I think you might have been.

Scratch off tickets
litter the sidewalk
that leads to the house
a friend of yours
might
have lived in.


Walking by the places
I saw you last.

Eight years ago
I met you briefly
behind the counter
at the Pleasant Street Theater.

Once at Bread and Circus
we talked for a moment,
but I can't remember
what we said.

Six months ago
we waved and said hello
in the parking lot
behind Thornes
I smiled and blushed
and fell in love.


Walking by you,
a few weeks ago
on main street,
I felt my stomach clenching
and I ducked behind a tree
even though I wanted
to be brave.



-Jim DuBois
June 27, 2005

"steel candy-cake perfume"

I remember that time
that you said
"steel candy-cake perfume"
and
Karl Marx
rose from the dead,
not came back to life,
just rose
straight up
UP
UP
into the air
and disapearred,
heading out
towards the
Oort cloud
and the horsehead
nebula

Well, that's the last time
I'll sing butterflies
of
supercluster cadences



-Jim DuBois
June 19, 2006

Semi-sweet broken hearts

Semi-sweet
      broken hearts

absorbing heat
      from the landscape

of lost love

because somedays

the sun isn't enough


-Jim DuBois
Aug 27, 2008

Fox News, etc

Propaganda machines
of the conservative capitalist empire
running at full force
to cover the cracks
in the foundation,
to distract and anger
the people
from their chance
to help deal it
a death blow


-Jim DuBois
Sept 4, 2010

Old Working Class Women

Old working class women,
smoking in the little park near the parking garage,
gossiping about this guy
who lives in their building -
they can't let each other finish their sentences,
they are agitated, but talkative and friendly.

Sometimes they wish they could afford
a better place to live.


-Jim DuBois
August 19, 2010

Evolution of Existence

I went outside
to eat two bananas
and enjoy the shade
and breeze

Then I reflected
on the nature
of my existence
as people have done
since they were people

Then I typed in
some poems
on my telephone
which sent them
through radio-waves
to some distant
computer server
so I could retrieve them
later


-Jim DuBois
August 19, 2010

Quark Dreams

I had this dream
that I was explaining to Robby
that when electrons jump from state to state,
they sometimes emit photons.

I woke up
and thought about
that living beings
are made of the same stuff,
like electrons and protons,
as other matter,
and that
all those weird quantum things
apply to the underpinnings
of our own selves.

Do we emit photons
every once in an improbable while?
do our protons ever decay?
do we have junk DNA and multiple back up RNA
to compensate for quantum randomness
that might disturb our
cellular reproduction?

I pictured us
as glowing collections
of subatomic particles,
heat, trapped and controlled
by elaborate methods,
like neurons and DNA.



-Jim DuBois
August 19, 2010

Lame Little Bird

Lame little bird,
leg stuck out sideways,
dragging across the ground,
hopping around like everything is normal,
you are made of
Quarks and Protons, too!


-Jim DuBois
August 19, 2010

SItting on your couch

Sitting on your couch,
Wanting to be closer to you,
Wondering what I should do (if anything).
Maybe I'll show you this?


-Jim DuBois
Fall 2007

American Spirit

I keep finding these
discarded American Spirit
cigarette boxes
and thinking it's ironic
(ha ha Indians are
back to nature, etc,
funny to see it here, etc)
but then I realized
tt wasn't, it was actually
a message from
the true American Corporate Spirit:
Kill people, take their image
idealize it to sell
addictive things
to help control
the population
and make a profit,
and leave trash
in the wilderness.


-Jim DuBois
April 25, 2010

Like the Sun - #17

To lead people well,
you must be one of them,
no better or worse,
no more or less deserving.

Don’t glorify your achievements,
don’t hide your difficulties.

Who you are will be enough.

Let others go before you,
let others come after.

When you are just another person,
with no selfish desires,
your leadership will last and be effective.


- Jim DuBois

[This is an excerpt from my book, Like The Sun, from the section about leadership. Get the whole book]

Like the Sun - #66

Have you seen the great canyons,
carved hundreds of feet through stone
into the earth?

It was only flowing water and time
that achieved such a spectacular result.

But on any given day,
you won’t see much evidence
of this occurring.

It can be useful to picture your efforts
in life similarly.

Each day you put effort into
your work, a bit here and a bit there.

Most often there is no immediate drama as a result,
but sometimes you can see the canyon-like effect,
stretching backwards in time.

You don’t need to do more
than to be persistent in your efforts to achieve something.

Indeed, there is hardly a way
you could force all the effort
required for spectacular things
into one day.


-Jim DuBois

[This is an excerpt from my book, Like The Sun, from the section about getting stuff done. Get the whole book]

Like the Sun - #1

The sun!

Radiating warmth to everyone,
sustaining life on earth,
needing no credit,
exerting no extra credit.


You can be like that:

Doing work that comes easily and naturally to you,
improving the lives of those around you,
changing situations for the better with your presence.



- Jim DuBois

[This is an excerpt from my book, Like The Sun, from the section about relating to people. Get the whole book]

Sometimes (again)

Sometimes,
the food you pick out
is exactly as delicious
as you had hoped.


-Jim DuBois
July 18, 2010

Everlasting

Old guy, reading the paper
at Stop & Shop,
"I'm one of those
everlasting survivors."

-Jim DuBois

Enough

Far enough
Wide enough
Long enough

enough

Expansive feeling of life
at the railroad bridge
over the Connecticut river


-Jim DuBois
April 14, 2010