In a dream I saw them
as clear as light
All the flowers of my childhood
The greens and golds
I walked past at midnight
Wispy dandelion seeds swept along cedar
by youthful breath
Clover necklaces
with knots in their stems
Distinct as the flowers of my adulthood
White and exotic and some
bearing fruit
Others only peeking long after
sun gone to slumber
Reds and yellows and umber
Some I cannot name
yet some the same
As those in the garden of
spirit’s infancy.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
My eyes cannot view the sea from here
but its brackish scent wafts through
with the course of spring wind
It reminds me of times spent in its warm, emerald waters
and the passage of time
So fleeting time, in its uncharted path
ever shifting like the wild spring currents
If I could go back again
however I cannot
Here I sit in calmness
breathe what the breeze brings
And know we will again
someday.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Welcome night jasmine
to winter’s party
of cool breaths below
and indigo skies above
Welcome to shivery winds
before dawn
and another blood moon
to come
Your scent reaches February’s corners
ticklng the eyes of the passerby
Within that aromatic
flowery sweetness
a place nestled
among fronds to hide
Welcome night jasmine
will you linger
past the season’s
final song
And dance to spring’s
chittering cadence
I feel it
coming on.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
To the butterfly garden I ran
its beckoning pulsed against the imminent sadness
of mourning and fading dreams
Its lush green vines and scattered wildflowers
a magnet to the journey of my feet
And just as I longed for and expected
when I entered there was no one there
Only the Longwing and Cloudless Sulphur
to flit on flower and autumn wind
to taste the nectar and dance again
And take with it the heaviness and suffering
endured
release it to the sky
so the sorrow would not weigh upon
so heavily
and my spirit may too
freely fly
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
And we passed the place
where we weren’t supposed to go
A hidden corner
on a rare chilly morn
Crunching of foot upon acorn husks
and withered needles of pine
She kicked sawdust
on me unknowingly
And he could neither
be still nor quiet
A spiderweb clinging
to the last branch outstretched
The hawk gliding high above
keeping a close eye
This is where we found
the dying babes of the forest
The wind tumbling them
to their last breaths
But this is where we sang an old song
I did not know you knew
And held hands distended
in our wooden circle
in the land of the fallen trees.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Would the waves take me away
from the sorrow of life’s pain
along the crest we could fly
like the flitting migration of butterflies
Beyond the milky way
beside the gulf coast shore
its freckled sparkling light
as if never seen before
Time has ceased upon this
corner of earth
and we are sentenced to it
yet never pardon us from this moment
The only passing of minutes
by the slow descent of the sun
and the dance of insect wings
never coming undone.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
A rabbit lives just outside my door
I call him Bun-bun
He travels the cloud-filled night
And nestles all day while the sun shines bright
For him a cozy nook under a pygmy palm
watching me leave with each new dawn
And when I arrive alongside sunset’s burn
the alcove is empty, awaiting his return
What goes on behind his big, black eyes
Where does he go underneath starry skies
It has become quite routine
for me to greet this cute little thing
And I shall be saddened so
when his nook is bare forevermore.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Along Autumn’s shadowy road
among scattered leaves
and ever-blooming hibiscus
a scent surrounds and encapsulates
a time when you were here
Lace curtains and tobacco
warm biscuits and apple butter
a long drive to your houses
the train chugging beside the highway
or heard in the distance at night
Afternoons on the red metal swing
climbing trees
stepping on crab apples
dancing clothes on the line
robust tomatoes in the garden
You came to me in a dream
respectively
young faces
and smiling eyes
Along Autumn’s shadowy road
among a post-summer wind
a lamenting of the past
and an emptiness in the heart
yet peace settles in
Still I stare at the photographs
and pretend you are just a long drive
away.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
We came back to thank god
all is ok
but the stench of humid decay
and fallen trees
rises like a bubbling swamp
and nighttime loneliness
pricks mockingly at the heart
Flood waters and sink holes
rip and drown requisite dreams meant for peaceful sleep
Blinding sunlight falling with the spit of rain
I want to sleep next to the open window again
A disconnect with those who stayed
and those who love but far away
a rash urge to flee again
or chop off all the hair
and wish it to grow back times ten
You are not sad
and I hope you never have to contend
I’ll take it all and bear through it as I wish September to end.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Green tea and almond cake
two cappuccinos and a cream-filled croissant
ordered in broken Italian
among the bright white cosmetic lights
of the Milan airport
Breakfast before our flight back home
Your happy-go-lucky smile
trumping my usual pre-flight nerves
I ordered you another brioche
and they understood.
Filed under Sunday Night Sonnet
Busted Flip Flops 