Flowers & Other Delights

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090525

HICKORY CREEK PARK

My private winter playground
has just been overrun
with hoards of weekend campers
loudly having fun.

But! It is a state park,
and summer has come;
and doesn’t everyone
deserve a place in the sun?


090525

TRICKSTER TREAT

You’re walking down a country road
through sparse woods, in a mist turned drizzle
about to turn rain.

Up ahead, you notice a dog, or not-dog;
coyote-sized, with grizzle-gray in its coat,
bushy-tailed.

It weaves down the road, as if
crisscrossing paths with an invisible partner.
It looks back at you; takes you in; resumes.
Coyote? Dog?

Casually, with one last glance at you,
it turns from the road, enters the woods,
and is gone.

You know it is gone, feeling strange because
you don’t know how you know it is gone.
You look into the woods anyway, puzzling.

Hours later, you still puzzle—
Can a coyote look like that?
Does any animal actually move like that?
At what point was it aware of me?
What does this crazy encounter mean?

Lucky enough to have a Native American handy
(as your own spouse), you enquire. And you learn.

The proper question is not,
“What do coyotes do?”
It is, “What does Coyote do?”
And the answer is:
“Anything to mess with your mind.”


090524

ANNE-IVERSARY

Enough of winter hideaway!
Maidens, to the meadow, pray.
Daisy, Iris—quit thy rest.
Hie thee to our Mayday fest.

Go ye, gowned in colors bright.
Rose—deep pink will suit thee quite.
Susan—choose some gold delight.
I, thy Queen, shall dress in white.


UNCUT FLOWERS

Daisies are in bloom today,
roses, cosmos, too;
many floral treasures—
I picked this one for you.


090523

GLORIA DAILY

Dawn comes rosey.
Dawn comes gray.
Dawn comes welcome
every day.


HUSBANDED

Life has been
so good to me;
life and he.

He’s making me
a cup of tea.


SLOT MACHINE

Muse, I use you—
over and over, again, again—
putting my little pen-ny in;
expecting, every time, a win.


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