aside from human events

feathered sentinels
on post pre-dawn, full alert—
sun still buds and blooms

 

Perennial

Tall grasses, hostas
shed drab-tattered winter coats;
birds need nest ribbons.

 

daffodils in waiting

wind flings snow sideways
in loose drifts against fences
green buds wear white crowns

Leap Day

Green gleams beneath brown
Clouds flee before sun released
from winter’s prison

*

Kitten pounces—air
Invisible insects ride
last year’s scattered leaves

Ritual

(Me)
coffee
grinding darkness
straining silence to breathe
voices coaxed from wraiths fiery dreams
fading

(You)
forty-seven years—
you will not certainly die
without orange juice

“Ritual poem” was our prompt for Day 15 of the PAD Chapbook Challenge.

Breaking

Autumn of rain, wind
crashing lightning-seared, more tears
cried out in this dark

After a Small Success

Dear shadow, you grow
too big—spread soft and hazy
with thinking, no edge

Day 12 of the PAD Chapbook Challenge, prompt is “After (blank).” I found the shadow over at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie.

Signs and Portents

and if rising seas
rivers of blood aren’t enough
bring on shadowed moon

There will be a total lunar eclipse next week, the fourth in a lunar tetrad, which has apparently brought out the doomsayers.

in between, and

never from nowhere

dark twirling words fountain-flash

spilling their sunlight

 
 
for my poet-friend Jenifer

Monday

1. Devil’s Workshop

One tangled scarf-skein
fails; I no longer want this
choking cloud color

2. Budget Accommodations

On shoestring of doubt
you get the whole shiny house
hollow, echoing
haunting the way you wanted
yesterday, buyer’s remorse