This lovely and bushy zinnia decided to join my garden-in-progress in my adjoining lot. Who says uninvited aliens aren’t welcome???? Click to enlarge photos.
For Cee’s FOTD
Volunteers
3 Replies
White Owl
White Owl
In the plaza,
or lifting over the hot pool at midnight,
the white owl carries a message.
Life or death?
Joy or pain?
Perhaps the white owl knows.
Its dropped feather,
on pavement or the surface of water,
may be a hint of what’s to come.
Once I flew,
a white owl
frozen in place in the winter air.
Once I roasted, too warmly dressed,
more accustomed to fir tree than palm.
The white owl
may know its place or may not.
We are the ones
who bring him here,
out of his climate,
off his familiar branch.
Who?
Who has brought him?
What, what is the message?
First Child
First Child
When it comes to good midwivery,
for sure, ease in delivery
is ranked high on performance scale.
But nonetheless, the baby’s wail
creates a pleasure so insane
that it wipes out mom’s earlier pain.
Folks question dad’s sobriety
judging from the variety
of gifts he brings for wife and son.
A rolling pin? A bee bee gun?
A negligee? A fishing pole?
A cowboy hat? A casserole?
When he ran out of gifts to buy,
his philanthropy then went awry.
He bought the hospital a broom
purely for use within their room
lest dust and dirt from other places
land upon his loved-ones’ faces.
Once home, their baby care routine
was like a well-oiled machine
that wove through bike and hobby horse––
a toy department obstacle course.
If it’s true that chaos has its beauty,
then this young dad had done his duty
in spreading beauty wherewithin
it’s probable you’ll bark your shin
or hit your head or stub your toe––
on toys piled everywhere you go.
If you looked closely, then just maybe
you might be able to locate baby.
Stocked for life, he’s unaware
of all the loot piled in his lair.
He’s content if he is changed
and fed and cuddled, rearranged
and left to sleep the day away.
He will not see his daddy play
with all the toys he wished that he
had to play with when he was three
and five and eight and seventeen,
when kids weren’t heard, but only seen.
Back then, it’s true, he had his pick.
His ball a stone, his bat a stick.
Prompt words today are variety, delivery, switch, philanthropy, beauty in chaos.
Moss Roses: FOTD, Oct 3, 2020
Still life with portucula and Morrie!
Poolside enhancement.
I love this new moss rose which grows in shades of hot pink and orange. I can see it from my desk so I enjoy its intense color all day long.
For Cee’s FOTD
On the Night of the Blood Moon
On the Night of the Blood Moon
Last night I rose to watch the full eclipse––
a blood orange moon, full in the dark night sky,
around it, scattered stars and tall palm tips.
It was as though in this world, only I
watched the last fingernail of glowing moon,
chewed at by shadow, slowly wane and die.
And then the night birds with their lonely croon
gave timbre to this darkened night soon joined
by lonely burro, braying for the moon
as though they mourned for vision now purloined
or simply sang for joy of adding to
the beauty of this dark moon newly coined.
Then once again the moon’s edge came to view.
Earth moved aside in favor of the sun
and for an hour, I watched as moonlight grew.
Then sought my bed, the pageant not yet done,
as light increased and shadow slowly waned.
Inevitably, once more light had won.
The ending known, no mystery remained.
Wordless
Prompt words for today are Wow, amplify, squabble, ferocious and vulnerability.
Wordless
I wish that I could wow you with putting prompts to rhyme,
but I seem not to be able to do so at this time.
“Amplify’s” been silenced and “squabble’s” fighting back,
while their potential author is revealed as just a hack.
It seems my old acuity at making words behave
has somehow deserted me, branding me a knave.
The truth that I am lacking in *vocabular agility
has left me slightly flummoxed with a new vulnerability.
(*For all I know, some lexicographer’s already dissed
my coinage of a brand new word the dictionaries missed.)
This poet, once ferocious, has been worn down by time.
and I’m thinking in my next life I might come back as a mime.
Prompt words for today are Wow, amplify, squabble, ferocious and vulnerability.
Hibiscus: FOTD, Oct 2, 2020
Pea Soup
Pea Soup
Fog reaches out its fingers and reaches out its toes
to prod and follow everywhere the British nation goes.
Then when it gives up teasing them, sun does not come again.
Fog merely slips aside a bit to make room for the rain.
So button up your raincoat. Invest in rubber boots.
During rainy season, fog and rain are in cahoots
to confuse your direction and make your going tough
and dampen down your spirits if your wet clothes aren’t enough.
Pea soup in November moves in thick and tight––
not solving any hunger. Feeding no appetite.
And when rain comes to join it, they make a dismal pair––
soaking up your stockings and limping down your hair.
So if you live in London in Knightsbridge or Picadilly,
it isn’t very practical, in fact its downright silly
to go without galoshes or a GPS when walking
when rain commences soaking you and fog takes up its stalking.
If you’ve set your mind today to visit Scarborough Fair,
it will not be enough to wear some flowers in your hair.
You’d better wear a rain bonnet and tie it good and tight
So parsley sage and rosemary don’t share your soggy plight,
take a big umbrella to protect your provender
lest paper bags you carry prove too soggy and too tender
to serve the use they’ve earlier served in months less wet and boggy.
There’s no other solution when London life turns froggy!
You’ll mow down little old ladies and run into a rector
while wandering lost through rain and fog in an unknown sector.
So though you seek to sightsee or merely walk your Lab,
believe it when I say to you, it’s best to take a cab.
This poem isn’t very Halloweeny, but it is about fog! For the Halloween Challenge: Fog
Brilliant Suggestion for the Next Presidential Debate
My friend Larry Kolczak had a great idea for the next presidential debate. Here’s a screen shot of his e-mail!
Bipartite
Bipartate
Pelted by the details of the busy world,
I lie within with half of me comfortably furled.
That flawless part that stays within, that flawed part I let out.
Trying to synchronize the two is what life is about.
Prompt words today are pelt, synchronize, flawless and bipartite. Also, Shining Your Light. for OctPoWriMo.
