POETRY
MOONLIT BLUE
Soft Smoky skyline
Tracing paths
Along a delicate spine
Faint outline of ridges
The smooth curve
Of jagged edges
Before morning dew
Wispy shadows, mist
All shades of blue
Whispering breeze
The north wind
Rustling hair, leaves
Songs of the night
No words spoken
Bask in Her light
Me, the birds, you
All the world painted
Moonlit blue
A SERIES OF DRUNKEN HAIKUS
1 Shot
A sip of sweet air
Inhaled after the harsh bite
Of bitter liquor
2 Shots
My throat is on fire!
My mind is cool, like water
My body, like air
3 Shots
Topsy turvey - yay!
Spinning around, all long day,
Too drunk to say nay.
4 Shots
I see the world twice
Double-vision spins me ‘round
I can’t see the ground
5 Shots
Cool and comforting
Hard tiles against my warm cheek
I’ll sleep here all night
AN ODE TO JANUS
He who looks both ways, future and past,
enshrined in bronze archways, key in hand -
I pray your doors are closed!
But no! You wait and catch me unawares,
entangling me in a fog of unknowing.
Before me, a space full of possibilities,
a fresh landscape I peruse - each object,
each corner, each empty space - searching.
Behind me, a space devoid of attachment,
blurred by untouchable time - lost, forgotten -
a life no longer within my grasp.
Oh two-faced god! At once you've taken
and given - every blessing a curse,
every beginning an end - all the while laughing,
two-fold, as I stand here, unmoving,
at this precipice of knowing.
TWENTY-FOUR
She's twenty four and immortal.
Even as she lies in that wooden encasement
Surrounded by loved ones, young and old,
Bewildered, angry, grieving,
As each takes a solitary, public moment
Shares a word or two of comfort,
Solace and remembrance.
Even as she falls into that freshly plowed earth
Surrounded by others like her, young and old,
Alone, connected in eternal solitude
As part of something greater.
"Gone but not forgotten" they say.
She's not dead. She's immortal.