umbra

He poured umbra over his shoulders sluicing color off his back to puddle languidly in desolate corners and seep soundlessly away spilling frail filaments of lost light his grief made lucent

Eurydice's Crow

on lusty scrape of wind, she soars to settle, hushed,   

too dense with lilt of pine and sun to rise anew 

her satin feathers rest yet fluoresce air, unrushed, 

with languid fragrant breath of slow perfume

tainted wild and wrestled from wind and shadowed sky

and froth of flagrant tempests yet to bloom

she’s harbinger, soul-singer, soothsayer, spy our mothers’ muse shining through stygian gloom.

sunset at sea

All day the sun had danced on these fledgling waves

jagged hillocks gleaming like rumpled silk

limning the peaks and valleys the ridges and folds with silver glints of fire. 

Now as the sun retreats to gild the hills  

the waves rekindle its fevered touch

tamping it down to drown in fathomless depths

Swallowing it whole to sink below wrinkled water

to resurface as hammered silver jewels A burning grace

Happy

it sits on the tongue 

coats it sunny yellow

buttery melt lusciously sweet

it licks the back of bare knees 

a puppy kiss of ticklish bliss

mornings it teases the lips

tingles them pink

savory sip potently deep

middays it warms the arms

with azure breeze

breathily etched, sunnily fresh

twilight it bedazzles the eyes

in winking skies

shimmery swing radiantly bling 

it babbles it sings 

it chimes it rings 

this flagrant fragrant chorus we sing happy  

Oaks Bottom Bog

emerald womb, wet, fecund, 

seizing sun’s fertile light 

grazing roots of thought, soft,

tendrils glazing duckweed floats

quickening flow of blood and dew 

to open our throats like the Pacific chorus frogs 

who burp songs where they sit 

and loosen our bent wings to flit and dip

like wrens and wood ducks come to sip

birthed whole and well in this wild 

where green sings

in radiant elvish tongue hallowed tune

Daylight Fireworks

For I shall take my summer’s ease beside

these trees, whose teasing limbs unscroll to reach

my filigreed railing perched on high,

Their piney fingers teasing, trailing, to beseech

And beckon me to conjure wings and fly

with hummingbirds, goldfinches chickadees, jays.

in raucous, rowdy glee, winging sparks aloft

as we  flicker, twitter, glitter the ruckling sky

with sizzling  pink, and brilliant  blue.

And ignite excite the brooding clouds with blazing hue. Daylight Fireworks

Sneakers the Rocket Kitty

Sneaker-feet poised, tail aloft, she pauses on the top step

Surveying her domain. The space she must conquer.

Eyes slit to sapphire gleam

Jeweled vision engaged 

She harnesses lurking breath, bewitches the air.

In a whisker twitch

she launches into the firmament she conjured,

The narrow stairwell stretched to infinite longevity.

Fleet feet winged with feline need.

She descends, traversing space at warp speed superluminal impulse

and propels her nine pounds of boundless bundled gravity into the oak door

Wham.

Sleek tail curled in the shape of satisfaction

She sashays away 

Surveys her domain Conquered.

Scuttled

Twilight.

All ashes and ache, 

I hover beneath the loose blue lake of sky.

where crow wings sing like slick of oars

And fireflies light their goblin torches, flit and flick 

of darkling gleam. 

Backlit clouds scull across the sky,

streaming a higgledy-piggledy calligraphy of runes 

to untether my scuttled hope and

sweeten my ale to caramel cream.

Summer in Motion

A gabble of petals, a ramble of leaves, a scramble of stems

blooming full tilt in the vase, drifting sideways, bending, leaning, 

loosening leaves, drizzling petals 

that soften the table with pastel drifts sweet as first snow 

butter cream daisies, blushing roses,

winter white dahlias

stirring the air with the sway of porch swings and  

hammocks and rowboats and floating fishing string Summer panorama of motion

Bliss

Coffee
Ah, bliss
Just a whiff of mist rising
licking my waiting lips.
This fragrant kiss
too rich to resist.
still I linger
Watching a finger of steam rise,
A swirling cirrus blurring the blue
And lifting my eyes
to rippling sky loud with clouds
tossing sparrow song, crow clamor
and inner chatter
Asunder.
A moment of wonder
winging, singing, flinging me
into caffeinated gratitude.
Solitude
Ah, bliss.

Puppy Sitting

The windows flung wide, chewies and poems tossed aside

as rain rushes down and down to bless the pine trees

We pause, puppy and I, to taste the green that eases

the air between dripping sky and puppy fluff

that sprinkles our sofa and rugs and rhymes

It is sublime, this moment free of time Just us sitting and sitting by the singing rain of spring

Breathe

Somedays the sun hangs listless

Half-lit, tilting toward nothing but sky

limning only the tips of clouds.

Beneath, bird breasts gleam flat matte 

They offer blurred paeans on

fluttering wings, held breathless 

behind sluggish glass. Restless.

Maybe we can breathe for them

Just whisper a bubble of faith 

Until the sun remembers  The taste of summer breeze on its fiery tongue

The Things Left Behind

His sock hangs off the edge of bed, 

rumpled sheets flinging

it aside long-legged jeans peek out 

from the pillow, unfluffed 

and lean, a blanket trails a blue 

question mark on the floor.

A journal spills interrupted dreams 

everywhere 

books dribbling pages littering pencils

So quiet

only a sigh of wind whispers behind the curtain

Ghostly motion

unbodied motion  Holding its breath in the empty room

Whimsy

 

squirrel wisdom

She pussyfooted down the branch, 

her twitch of tail a cadence of caution.

Inch by inch, she stretched herself out, 

rotund tummy unrolling, still stout,

but now long and wide - a flurry of fur

plushing the pine, lulling the tree into slumbrous

motion, rocking up and down, blurring

the green with gray on this sunlit day

To sleep in sun, to smooth the raspy edges

and loosen limbs unleafed and furled tight

like fiddlehead ferns and sleeping trees.

To heed spring’s call, and loll between leaf and sky should, and always shall be, enough for me.

Queenly

 

Flossie

 

Mouse Dream

It crept slowly, whiskers a-flutter,

on tiny pink feet, delicately fingered.

It’s snub nose, blushed pink in the evening light,

wrinkled furiously

tasting air blooming with violets and lilacs

while its little teardrop ears chased

meadow songs.

It looped its tail around a daisy stem

and paused to stare at me,

Shiny black eyes 

palpitating with nervous stealthy life.

I wanted to brush the yellow pollen from its wee brow,

stroke behind its satin ears, and dress it in purple tulle.

My Mother Rosie Rossman

In my dreams, 

she’s half brownie, half birdie

always in a flurry, 

Scurrying wide and near

to perch and peer 

with bright eyes alight

flickering,

Forever in quest of smiles

To line her nest

She bustles about

On little feet

Sharing bits of sweet

this and that of chat

and a beaming smile

or kindly pat.

And some nights

when she bobs nearby

I see with my dreaming eye

a wee hint -a little inkling-

Of glossy beating wings

Palpitating with life And for a moment, my heart sings.

Red Sweater

A blaze of red against a sky scoured white 

by wind, the sweater straggles, caught tight

by scraggly limbs. Its empty arms reach down

as though desperate to clutch the crusted ground.

It’s frayed and nubby, plush cashmere now spent

and left to waft a hint of lingering floral scent

mixed with leaf mold and dirt and dying things gone soft.

I tug.The branch holds tight while wind whips it aloft

and sends its arms flailing, reaching for flight.

Then, briefly, within, a memory of skin catches light.

A hint of arms once warmed, a gathered waist. once draped, a ghost of life it once embraced.