and for – testicles, being of mother, wombs, navels, genomes, test-tubes, ancestry.com, lab rats, nosing/mouthing air, sucking, sticking tongues out, spitting up, grabbing, snot, blessings, mastication, imprinting, canines, weening, Beechnut, digestion, perturbation, colons, prunes, rheum, crap, not swaddling in parchment of the law, basting, trussing, sizzling, silverware, settings, rules, formulae, rulers, protractors, parsing, not stepping on sidewalk cracks, hopscotch, eying rocks in a stream, mazes, not knowing what not to know, hoping, needing to speak, mewling, playing cat and mouse, coping, growing up, metaphor, arias, pyramids, ceding power, seeding ground, poking her, fattening, raising cane, lawns, owning/owing, landscaping, fencing out/in, outliers, mowers, maws, haws, hoes, lifting a hand/lending a fist, tool, baton, blade, lashing a binding, back, eye, walloping, pit bulls, breeding, cock-fighting, stock, pets, bear-baiting, toreadors, falconry, capes, coops, meat, co-ops, intersections, carotid artery/trachea, hard wiring, lariats, whipping horses, racing, javelins, hammers, peening, decathlons, professionals, target practice, bulls’ eyes, pinning tails, birthday parties, preening, wounds, nails, sockets, static electricity, statutes, cages, steel, curium, einsteinium, fermium, make-up, soot, supreme court judges, decalogues, Q.E.D., sentences, lobsters in tanks, fish hung on gaffs, flapping, not remaining seated, cymbals, exclamation marks, naming hurricanes, whooping it up, clowning, nudging, wearing gold hoops, bicycle touring, mining, lead, fiat, shrouds, tomes, lists, eulogies, tragedy, metered praise, paying for time on the street, tickets, misdemeanors, miscreants, misappropriating fun, speaking of your pain, grafting, scalpels, awls, chainsaws, subtraction, amputation, puncturing ear lobes, piercing sky with spires, nose cones, observation decks, searching clouds for linings, space stations, walking without gravity, going to the moon, Tang, communication satellites, luxury cruises, projection booths, maps, time capsules, tombs, dams, flooding the desert, words …            

and for — opening pores, bleeding, penance, suffering nakedness, nude joy, bleating, eating/not eating the flesh of god, believing god could die/live, playing hide and seek, thinking ex nihilo, tales, tele, geo, nano, meta, bat and spider men, clones, ghouls, soul music, witches’ brooms, wands, pitchforks, bellows, fireplaces, terra firma, speed boats, jets, parachutes, paratroopers, toy and boy soldiers, navies, admirals, oil paintings, foyers, sculpted stone, décor, changing only what we can, leaving well enough alone, gender, he-men, walking erect, lace, undergarments, stays, pretending not to be free, whipping horses, keeping to ourselves, ballooning, details, bingeing, loving, dreaming in sunlight, waving goodbye, growing old, thinking the night dark, prayer …

for all these acts, thoughts, feelings, lives, deaths, constellations, lords, things – forgive us! heal us!

In 2014, Ted retired from the practice of labor law, after 38 years, to write every day. He has had poems published, or accepted for publication, in “Jewish Currents,” “Midstream,” “The Listening Eye,” “The Aurorean” (best poem of issue), “Poetica” (honorable mention, and finalist, best poem contests), “Thema,” “Rattle,” “Halfway Down the Stairs,” “Slipstream Press,” “Crosswinds,” “Lighthouse Journal,” “Main Street Rag Anthology” and “Ragged Sky Anthology.” He received honorable mention in the Palettes & Quills Chapbook contest, and was a semi-finalist in the Concrete Wolf Chapbook contest. Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, This, in March.