**These were all short, so I thought I'd post them together.**

[1.] "The Arborist's Dream"
The cherry tree, I dreamt, was blighted.
Its bark was bubbling up, frothing pink at each joint.
The disease was making it turn into a cherry soda, all fizzy.
I, the arborist, with my ladder climbed
and trimmed, and pruned, and treated
but in vain.
I could not find the source and kill it,
so the tree was going to die.

[2.] “L’esprit D’escalier”
Don’t you hate when you go home
and you think of what you could have said
and you think of all the silly things that came out of your mouth instead.

I wish I could take them all back!
To the past, and swallow my words

All that about the moon and Halloween
and about how I discovered, on my way here, a pear tree
and about how my bike is prone to squeak,
or some story that was halfway funny.
I wish I could stop those words from coming
spilling out of my mouth.

Next time I see you, I’ll beg your pardon
and let you do the talking instead.

[3] "Grey Day"
I close my eyes, the world slips by,
on the radio a slow song plays
the highway streams soft misty rain on the windshield
I could pretend to be anywhere else, on a country road, passing meadows, passing pumpkin fields
but not today. I can only dream in grey
and rain.