DAILY PHOTO: Adrift on the Nam Song

Guileless Hibiscus [Free Verse]

translucent hibiscus:
keeps its secrets
in its folds;
anywhere petals
don't double over,
the light shines through.

hanging face down --
pistil dangling --
pockets emptied by
gravity.

the jungle beyond blurs.

DAILY PHOTO: Mountain Contour

Image

Sunfall [Haiku]

mountain sunfall:
vivid tree afore; painted
backdrop behind.

Karst [Free Verse]

Dissolving mountains.

Craggy & rugged outside.
Stone pock-marked & pitted,
Deformed natural bonsai
growing out of the cliff.

Hollow on the inside.
Amorphous caves tunnel
under those rocky tops,
Smooth lumpy cave floors
and walls,
Rough & gritty stalactites
overhead.

How long does it take to dissolve
a mountain?

Gnarled [Free Verse]

Mostly, the dead decay:
they crumble
or rot to goo.

But some trees
turn steely
hard & smooth --
fibers showing like
rigid sinews.

Bare of bark and leaves
and flowers,
but unyielding of
girth and substance.

But even those trees
give way --
perhaps in geologic time
rather than biologic time,

But still the tree will become
someone & something else.

Shapeshifter [Haiku]

light & shadow play
across the mountains —
redrawing ridges.

Barbed-Wire Highway [Haiku]

barbed-wire strand:
a two-way ant highway,
around the pasture.

DAILY PHOTO: Nam Dee Waterfall, Luang Namtha

Moonrise [Free Verse]

Moonrise --
big and bright --
over a quiet town.

People stare --
alone but simultaneously --
'til the milky light
hurts their eyes.

This moon reminds them
of one from childhood
but seems unlike so many since...

But it's all one moon.