Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

from old stone ruins
 grow hardy weeds, raising
  flowery heads skyward.

gray autumn skies
 show in liquid metal
  creek pools.

first snowy morn.
 the only signs of life:
  plodding footprints.

sunlight shines
 through the butterfly's wing:
  yet, it seems sluggish.

sinuous limbs
 of a sprawling tree look 
  like wriggling squid.

the flowing river
 looks still as glass, until
  fallen leaf ripples.

the foggy valley
 looks like a depthless painting
  through fall foliage.

dry and yellow,
 fall leaves hang on like a thick
  head of gray hair.

the sun is low,
 but then it never gets high
  this time of year.

ten seconds after
 a dead limb broke under it:
  poised to leap again.