Monthly Archives: January 2021

Natural Beauty

Natural Beauty

She’s so ravishing that she needs no adorning,
so lovely that she should come with a warning,
“Don’t alter or ornament, polish or buff.
Just as she is, she is more than enough.”

Don’t give her a fringe. Don’t mascara her eyes.
She’d be less than she is. Don’t attempt to disguise
what nature has given. It cannot be bettered.
Just let her perfection be seen thus unfettered

by ribbons or ruffles or buttons or bows.
Leave her with the ornaments that nature chose:
bright eyes and long lashes and raven-black hair,
slim ankles, long legs and a trim derriere,

a smile that is innocent, mind without guile,
an inborn sense of movement and style.
She’s a rich vein of gold not in need of refining—
a natural girl not in need of defining.

The traits she was born with should not be waylaid.
Don’t betray the choices that nature has made.
Look around at perfection that’s all around you.
Just by itself, it’s enough to astound you.

 

Prompt words today are fringe, ravishing, warning and betray. Unless otherwise stated, all images on this blog are by me.

Pasiano’s Treasure

I saw this 8-inch-wide stone sitting up on the bench under the arbor in the lot I’m developing into a little park. This afternoon when Pasiano and Jose were planting the truckload of plants and trees and cacti that were delivered yesterday, I went down to trim a century plant and pick up a few months’ trash that they’ve left strewn around the site, and Pasiano pointed the stone out to me, saying he had found it on my lot. Jose was teasing him about it and Pasiano was making a joke of it, too, calling it “his art” but he was really pleased when I was enthusiastic about it and he gave it to me. I was curious about whether it was a piece of petrified wood or an unusual  geological specimen, but when I decided to look closer tonight, I realized that the rings are all on the surface of the rock.  I wish I had looked closer at the place where it is (sadly) broken in two before I glued it back together, as that would give the best view of a cross-section, but the rings do come to the edge in a couple of places and they don’t seem to go any farther into the rock than the surface, so I’m pretty sure it is a rock painting.

Now I feel like I need to ask him if he wants to keep it. Hope he sincerely says no!  I think it is beautiful, and will give it a place of honor somewhere, and perhaps try to find out more about it. If anyone has any insight into what it may me, I’d appreciate your comments.  Even guesses are welcome!

 

 

Last Night’s Sunset

Lake Chapala, Jan 7, 2021.  Click on photos to enlarge.

Burro’s Tail: FOTD, Jan 8, 2021

For Cee’s FOTD

Pieces of Toast

Pieces of Toast

They dip into
the smooth
round yolk
of a fading dream.

They interfere,
these conscious words,
an uninvited jentacular
mob that enters

without invitation,
shedding their crumbs.
I make exception
and surrender
control,

accepting
their sharp crisp corners
into the broken centers
of my smooth round
subterranean
stanzas.

Words for the day are mob, interfere, jentacular and exception. Image by Mae Mu on Unsplash. Used with permission.

Also, for dVerse Poets Open Link Night

 

Lighthouse Point: Lynn’s Tuesday Picture Prompt

Photo by Lynn

Lighthouse Point

A rocket shape
stabs the landscape,
white and stark.
But in the dark,
its road of light
cuts through the night.

Strong and sure,
confusion’s cure,
it guides the lost
and tempest-tossed
to safety’s shore,
the stuff of lore.

A beacon streaming,
bright and beaming,
guiding lost souls
past coral shoals
through froth and foam,
securely home.

For Lynn’s Tuesday Picture Prompt, Week 30

SWC Challenge: Winter Weather

Snow’s Epilogue

We can’t count the snowflakes nor put them into order.
They fall to make a blanket or a pile or a border.
They come in a blizzard and leave us in a trickle. 
There’s something about former snow that is so very fickle.
It drips in drops from icicles and surges down the gutters.
Our attempts to modify it end in futile mutters.
I need not be prophetic to state the truth of snow.
It starts out in a flurry and ends up in a flow.

 

SWC Challenge: Winter Weather

Forgottenman’s Favorite Liberal Redneck Reacts to Yesterday

This is what Trae Crowder has to say about last night’s riotous debacle: (Click on link immediately below, not on the arrow.)

https://okcforgottenman.wordpress.com/2021/01/07/my-favorite-liberal-redneck-reacts-to-yesterday/

Thanks, Forgottenman, for sharing it

Ulterior Motive


Ulterior Motive

When you take me to the gym for our initial date,
do you mean to intimate you find me overweight?
You blanket me with strategies for my self- improvement
and give me tips on dieting and exercise and movement,
then hand over your business card as a personal trainer,
saying you require a small amount for a retainer.

Because your gaze was mesmerizing, I became distracted,
but now I think that this first “date” will not be reenacted.
I see now that the signal in your eyes when they met mine
was not infatuation, but simply a money sign.
When it comes to self-improvement, I know what I must do.
The first option that I’ll exercise is getting rid of you!

 

Word prompts today are blanket, intimate, mesmerizing and distracted.

Aloe Bloom: FOTD Jan 7, 2021

 

 

For Cee’s Flower of the Day