Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

dragonhead
 rises up out of a cloud,
  over the city.
 how many see the cloud,
  but not the dragon?

raindrops ripple paddy water; 
 wavelets wrap into grain stalks.

after the rains,
 water cascades in ways
  never seen before.

clouds fill the valley:
 a gauzy avalanche
  in slow motion.

mountain snow:
 tinged orange
  by sunrise.

brown moth blends against bare earth,
 'til footfall tremor sends it lurching.

Spring rain for days:
 grass is green & thick;
  the mud, soft & thin.

trunk ringed by fallen blooms, 
only the pate contains hangers-on.

bright-fringed clouds 
 with blackened bellies drift:
  summer day sundown.

shifting shadow
 on sandy bottom betrays
  illusory depth.