Today’s Excuse

I meant to work, spill beauty
profounder than these coffee rings—but Monday
the sun still yawning through fog
all groggy, rough with birdsong
unsung, today’s blooming
yet undone and oh
Monday

 

Day 11, Poetic Asides prompt is a defensive poem.

aside from human events

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

 

All blackbirds in silhouette

It’s air-tight, this insulation
house silent except

the wicker crackle
of my chair-seat, periodic

ping of the furnace. Outside
before the sun, before even

the start of a down-street engine
swinging headlights, distant dog-bark

if I open the door (if)
a wealth of opening

joyflood birdsong, after-rain
dirt-scent, green

purelife welling a balm
worth its wait

 

Thank you, Jane, for the blackbird gold.

March 2, 05:30

quarter-moon glows, cut
pasted on black
sky, stilling
star-string
all
my words
impatience
swept by cold-bright
breath of morning’s gift

An hourglass poem for Jane’s weekly challenge #20.

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.

Morning

coffee enough to last
an hour, creep back
through dream-fog
to that sky-narrow stair
(and sigh)
walk awkwardly through
other lives all knowing
(an hour’s purpose)
wake the sleeping
lions set to whine or roar
or yawp