POEM: Ode to the Sun [Sonnet]

We are always eight minutes to midnight,
saved only by that blazing fire, the sun.
Everything dark is thrown into its light,
exposed at speeds that cannot be outrun.

Its warmth still radiates on darkest night.
When covers have been pulled up to the cheek,
its heat still lingers, staving off frostbite,
and trickling drops under the frozen creek.

When sands are burning under tender feet,
and sweat is dripping from one’s flesh and hair,
and even when we curse the brutal heat,
we still prefer that you remain right there.

You’ve got just five billion years left to fire,
I hope someone’ll be sad when you expire.

POEM: Mental Weather

My mind experiences unforecastable weather.

Adrift in horse latitudes
Tortured by a polar vortex

Low pressure systems
to
High pressure systems

Storm fronts & storm surges

Partly sunny / partly cloudy
or
Partly cloudy / partly sunny
[Depending upon whether I’m in a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of mood.]

Lightening strikes
Wind shear / wind chill / wind chimes
Squalls
Droughts, often followed by flash flooding
Breezes, blizzards, and breezy blizzards
Microbursts
Flood crests
Nor’easters

Due points and do points [if not a dew point]
Topical depression — though no tropical depressions

Hail storms

Sun Dogs & rainbows

POEM: Leprechaun

I think I saw a Leprechaun,

but it could’ve been a deer.

It seemed quite mean, and was a bit green,

but I’d had a keg of beer.

POEM: Agents of Change

They took the Moral High Ground,
commanding its lofty heights.

And never bombed trespassers,
but let them fail on their own.

Some wanted to let their anger show,
to know that they’d struck back.
Those few tumbled from the high ground,
landing in the scree of despot lackeys.

In the end, the powerless, that Juggernaut,
could not be defeated.

For every step usurpers made
shone a harsh light on their souls,

and all the world saw the gruesome image
that was reflected back.

Four Tenacious Leaf Haiku

I
the last leaves
on a barren tree,
doggedly hang

 

II
green to red,
the leaves grow, stop,
then fall off

 

III
the rain tree
limbs spiral skyward
all leaves out

 

IV
a tree shape
stands atop a mountain
cactus ruse

POEM: In Focus

A sight enflames my consciousness,
and the world blurs away.
And nothing vibrant or golden
can hold my mind in sway.

A simple beauty does the trick —
no gemstones are needed —
to ensure the cosmos beyond
lies wholly unheeded.

I never know what simple sight
will capture my focus —
perhaps, a cloud, or just a curve,
a creature, or a crocus.

POEM: Baby Owl in a Tree

Baby owl in a tree
you may lack your elders’ sagacity,
but for cuteness, they ain’t got nothing on you —

 

And
yuh blend.

POEM: City Noir

Neon-fired

Rippling lights,

churning & flashing,

colors dancing off the walls,

pooling & spinning into each other

Oh, how the colors glisten on wet pavement

River Boulder Tanka

smooth boulders
dragged ever so slowly,
tumbling in floods,
sitting so far from the river
that they seem untouchable

POEM: Little-e Epiphany

The little “e” epiphany
strikes me in
the middle of the night.

Enveloped in darkness, I lie,
contemplating
the bold stories the world has told.

I think upon slapped cheeks
and
grand strategy
and
the universe outside my door.

I wonder whether one can
be change
and
change one’s being,
or
whether there’s a choice to be made.

I feel at peace —
though not enough
to drift back to sleep.