Starry Starry Night

(You Look Very Familiar)

While you were making 

your grand entrance 

shining in regal ascendence 

to assume your rightful place 

as the light dimmed

and all fell silent 

with awe and respect

I once again suffered

my private embarrassment

that though you looked 

so very familiar

I could not remember

if you were a star 

or a planet

and all I could do 

was study your movement

long enough to make sure 

your elegant saunter across the night sky

was not an attempt 

at a graceful landing 

at the airport.

Please forgive me,

your name again?

Ken Owen   November 2020

Van Niddy Press

Eleven Weeks

(The Smell of Pancakes)

The fog seemed to lift early this morning

making way for a relaxed sun 

and a cool gentle breeze

that could barely raise enough energy 

to make the tree tops move

and somewhere from our apartment building

someone was cooking pancakes 

which gave the day a sweetness 

that had felt missing 

for quite a while.

The news showed people in large crowds 

dancing, parading, cheering in celebration

in relief knowing that someone else

someone new

would now try to make right

what the last person

could only make worse

while the losing side

as is now to be expected

could only manufacture complaints

of corruption, malfeasance 

and suspicious results which

reminded us that our divide 

still needed great repair and

would not disappear

overnight

and even though I could share 

in the relief of seeing 

a new start on the horizon

I couldn’t keep from wondering

after all the trials this year had laid before us

how many more challenges

for ourselves and our democracy

would we have to endure

over the next eleven weeks

before we could start again.

November 7, 2020

Ken Owen    Van Niddy Press

The First Monday in November

Tomorrow night

there will be great celebrations and rejoicing

that our country’s path forward 

is once again clear

while at the same time

much consternation and wailing

that the end of our democracy 

is imminent 

and yet the next day

the sun will rise as expected

and stay low in the autumn sky

painting a warm glow on all we see

as we move forward with the day’s tasks

while trying not to be overwhelmed 

by the great divide we’ve carried since birth

that marks us still.

Ken Owen     November 2020

Van Niddy Press

In Proper Measure: Life in The Time of Covid-19

Our world has been reduced to

bedroom, bathroom, 

kitchen, couch, and desk

and when we do brave beyond our gate

we do so with great caution

masking nervous stares.

               ***

Our constructs of time 

are being

redefined—

days have lost their borders 

forced to stand on their own carrying 

names of lost distinction and useless numbers 

when none but the first and last 

can help the calendar 

retain any purpose

and a clock 

serves only to announce 

the afternoon nap

so we task ourselves each morning

with goals to earn the day

that we may continue the

one unalterable tradition

of celebrating our daily successes and 

numbing ourselves of our failures at 5:00p.m.

               ***

Our closets 

have never been 

so tidy

as the clothes that still fit 

have been narrowed down 

to a select half-dozen items

each one christened 

with samples of 

‘project paint’

and masks in all colors and styles

for our rare personal appearances

are the only new additions

as our old wardrobe

dies quietly, day by day

item by item.

               ***

The computer as our only social tether

and bearer of all news, good and bad, real and fake,

is now unbreakable

we have become experts in 

home video conference 

lighting technique, and

“What have you been doing?”

has been replaced with

“What have you been watching?”

               

               ***

All of this feels 

like a strange way 

forward

and going back to what was

seems impossible 

from here

as we recalibrate our lives

with the lesson of valuing time 

in proper measure 

and practice our gratitude 

for all we have been given

while surrounded by so much loss.

Ken Owen    October 2020

Van Niddy Press

And So...(Joe's Hardware Store is Fucked)

And so…

of all the god dam

universal possibilities

we could be expected to endure

 

we are now eight months into 

a global pandemic

that no one saw coming

except, of course

the people whose job it is 

to see these things coming

but, of course 

when they told us about it

we thought “not me”

 

and we didn’t listen to them

and when we finally did 

we quickly realized 

that they were making shit up as they went along

because they were as completely baffled 

as we were on what to do.

And so…

we then learned that 

Safeway would deliver 

food

and BevMo 

would deliver

booze

and the local dispensary 

would delivery 

cannabis in a dizzying variety of functions and flavors

and The Feds 

would delivery 

an extra $600 every week

to help pay for all your pizza, 

booze

and cannabis

and that we were now exempt from

getting off the couch and ironing a shirt 

and putting on long pants

to go make chit-chat

as all boring social functions 

had been canceled 

and we began to think

perhaps this won’t be so bad 

after all.

And so…

the extra $600 has kept Safeway in business and

BevMo with customers and 

the cannabis dispensaries afloat, but

Joe’s Hardware Store 

          is                       

        fucked

because his customers are now more

fat, stoned, and drunk than ever before

sitting on their couches realizing

 

that everything they need 

will come right to their door 

and

that leaky toilet 

can run

forever.

Ken Owen     Van Niddy Press

August 2020

Another 24 Hours

8:30 a.m.

Another 24 hours 

Granted,

Calendar day

Unknown.

Waiting for 

Caffeine

To pour on 

Kitchen clouds

And blue screens 

To deliver headlines of 

A rudderless nation

Adrift in chaos.

Another 24 hours

To practice 

Our being 

Good citizens within distance 

When to stay safe 

Is to do nothing but

Wash your hands

And mask your thoughts 

Lest you touch on

The wrong idea

And infect someone

With a different truth

Or inhale 

An unpopular narrative

And exhale 

The wrong opinion

And even with 

Only that

Still

We struggle.

Ken Owen     Van Niddy Press

July 2020

The Doomsday Stockpile

Go ahead,

admit it:

every time you go 

to the pantry

or hall closet

or check under the bathroom sink

or wherever it is that you keep it

you feel slightly embarrassed

by the ridiculous supply of

toilet paper

you have accumulated 

over the last three months

when they told you

the world

as we knew it 

was ending

and The Hive Mind declared

toilet paper 

of all things

as the one commodity

that would determine our future happiness

in the new world.

But you quickly reconcile the guilt

as you survey your

doomsday stockpile

with the story that your supplies 

are a personal testament 

to you as a steadfast tribal leader 

being ready for battle while saving his family 

from the unspeakable horror

of unsanitary public humiliation

and as you do a quick visual tally 

with the keen eye of a 

Wartime Supply Sergeant

to make sure your supply levels 

are at the ready

you take solace in knowing 

that your tribe can rest easy

and shit

care free

until 2023.

Ken Owen,  Van Niddy Press

June 2020

A Letter from Behind the Curtains

Dearest Ones:

Death is flying 

all around us now

unseen

unchecked

just outside 

doorways and windows

everywhere 

and 

if not careful

we could be 

the next to meet it

and after watching 

the news of the world

when we need a 

reassuring handshake

or embracing hug

they tell us that death 

could be hiding there as well

waiting

buried deep in those 

small gestures of comfort.

To say

these are different times

does not come close

to our new reality

of staying indoors 

hiding behind the curtains

while counting how many 

eggs you have left

before you need to brave 

the crowds parading with

eyes wide and desperate

in stores full of panic 

and empty shelves.

This will change many things 

and many people

forever

and it's unimaginable from here

what the other side may look like

but they say 

if we are diligent 

and perhaps lucky

we will make it through this.

I so look forward 

to hugging you again.

-Ken

Ken Owen      April 2020

Van Niddy Press