I miss you most

-

I miss you most when the shadows grow long

when violet pearled mountains are standing alone

I stand alone

When the opalescent sky holds my heart in a fist

against clouds scraping by in a rose hot blush

I miss you most.

Long in tooth and roaming for you

through iron-black oaks branding contrast to hue

Branded by you

The ashen scythe-strokes compose the day

I crave rest from the ebb in grounded clay

I rest with you

Only to cycle the circle of light

ash turns to gold

in afterglow’s sight

All rights reserved DGG thank you to Titanium at Element 22 and Braja Sorensen HERE

It makes more sense now...

55 Flash Fiction Friday

-
If you want some of my honey

won’t you bring some nectar home?

You’re spreadin' all the pollen
on the brightest blossoms,
sniffin at something I can't see
like a dog below a magnolia tree.

I know where mine's growin’
in the flowers of my garden.
I hear you buzzin near,
and I wonder why you’re here?


Write a story or poem in exactly 55 words, let Mr Knowitall know (listed on my blog)

Tuesday Toes

-

(aka:  the equivalent of wordless weds at Element 22)

the wildflowers are starting in California already, in the......

uh huh, foothills.

(for someone who travels very little, I started using my foot in the foreground of standard sightseeing shots, instead of the boring Mona Lisa head shot.) 

this photo is courtesy of Sara McGuire, firefighter, skiier, fantastic cook, and nurse-to-be-extraordinaire.

Sunday 160: Stopwatch

-
First water breaks, then light.
Count breaths, wakings, milkflow, for two
every 4 minutes on the watch.

After 16 years
I count daily moments
together before sunset
-
Sunday 160 challenge, write a story or poem in exactly 160 characters.
Like a text message, the Sunday 160 only uses 160 characters (including spaces)
Keep on schedule - post Sunday
Let Monkey Man know you have posted via a comment HERE

Visit at least one other Sunday 160

Imolc half way to spring

-
Half the larder gone

Rams rut, ewes fatten, beds laid,

Find camelia’s blush.

 

(in my rush to win bread, I missed Imolc, half way point between winter equinox and spring solstice.)

Friday Flash Fiction 55

-

He’s Sweet Sixteen

Closed as a tortoise

conserving the ages

inside his shell,

but agile as a feline

repelling a dog,

he fends off his mother’s touch.

Today the Ophthalmologist touches
his opening lids with her hands,
his eyes with her contacts.

A Cheshire-cat smile grows
as from a wondering new child.
My formidable cherub-god.

Join G-man and write a story or poem in exactly 55 words.  Let him know, HERE.
Happy Birthday to my number 1.

55 Flash Fiction Friday

-
Snow wonderful snow! Fresh, and deep and powdered. I'm ready to ski, on black diamonds I'll carve it! Don't forget to wax the skis, and sharpen the edges. I'll be first on the chairlift please. Catch me at the bottom! Sierra snow, 6 feet of fresh snow, I’m gonna go!
-
Apologies, to the musical Oliver, and my readers.  I'm snow blinded.
Write a story or poem in exactly 55 words, and let G-Man know HERE

-
Photo: Sugar Bowl, California, above Donner Lake,  named for the early settlers of the Donnor Party who crossed the western Sierra Nevada but were stuck here and some resorted to cannibalism to survive.  Just an interesting tidbit.

hearts lie down

Lie down by my side, by my side, by my side.
I have the need to hold you, she cried, she cried.
To have you lie against me, by my side, by my side.

I remember how it felt
To hold my tiny sleeping child,
Our bodies safely cradled
From the cold and the wild.

Lie down by my side, by my side, by my side.
To have you lie against me, with a smile, with a smile.

Make a blanket of my arms,
My hips and my chest.
Nestle your heart inside of mine,
Let it rest, let it rest.

Lie down by my side, by my side, by my side.
To have you lie against me, she reclined, she reclined.

We’ll stop my legs from running,
And close my mind from fear,
I’ll hum a little lullaby
For only you to hear.

Lie down by my side, by my side, by my side.
To have you lay against me, she sighed, she sighed.

Or maybe we’ll lie silently,
Thinking only of our breath,
In a bed of our own skin,
Without height or width or depth.

Lie down by my side, by my side, by my side.
To have you lie against me, for a while, for a while.

Restrain my restless feet
In a belt of your own legs,
Let my worried fingers
Trace the ridges of your face.

Lie down by my side, by my side, by my side.
To have you lie against me, in the night, in the night.

Just as the black horizon forms
Against the starless sky,
The contact of your weight on mine
Grounds all my wayward sighs.
-
in honor of Valentine's Day, Imolc, and the impending Spring......
for all lovers out there, at risk of giving my poetry to thieves, gratefully given to the one I love
All rights reserved.

Simple Things Challenge

-
A simple note

-
I will share one simple thing tonight.
One thing that makes my world right,
one thing less
meaningless
than the rest,
which soothes the beast.

When you sit in a car willing motion with tension
as minutes roll creeping along,
driving your feet into the floor
too uptight to be bored,
listen to music, or sing a song.

“Let me hear a ‘concert F’”, the band’s instructor said.
A single note, simple enough, I thought in my head.
First, five tubas ‘boomed’.
The students followed, each in turn,
with separate, and sharp complexity,
each scaling multi-directionally.

I held my breath to capture that sound
unlike any mere words can relay,
in a room full of chairs
up high on the stairs
alone and unseen and astounded.

It’s like standing in a rushing wind
which blocks out all of your senses,
feeling your features
wash off your face,
and leaving you bare with grace.
-

Fellow writer at Enchanted Oak has made a challenge, for every post written on Simple Things, and sent to her site, her family will donate 2.00$ to Haiti relief.  Find her HERE and let her know.  This is my contribution.

55 for a "Healthy" Addiction?

-
What gets you drunk as a skunk?


Glassy eyed, does the glowing room
become a sheer reflecting pool?

Clenching a dent in your head,
does smiling tetany melt you to muteness?

Does a speechless, slurring, stuttering tongue
stop you, slack open, in pooling saliva?

Do shaking alien appendages,
clapping and toe-tapping, eventually meet the beat?

(It's just a fine,
 live-music
 fix.)

-
All rights reserved.
photo: my brother Dan of the Dead on Halloween with his banjo.

Friday 55 Fiction Challenge, write a story or poem in exactly 55 words, let G-Man know HERE

First Rain

-

-
During the night it woke me, drip drip dripping

like a clock, like a tear, a spreading puddle
changing all my plans into soggy sponges.

But during my 9:00 A.M. race through the hills
to the fields of soccer games,

the blinding ochre and straw hills
shot out wet and gleaming
patches of sun in the spaces of sky.

before the earth warmed,
before the air dried.

Tangible breaths of the invisible
rain-soaked air awakened a thirst
I did not know I had:

charged by the smell of the wet ground,
damp dust, and growth
wicking a sip for the first time.
-
-All rights reserved