The clouds drift beneath the stars in diaphanous gowns
Frogs call to distant lovers
Chill walks through the garden
Summer’s grasp on our evenings is slipping.
poem-beaming August 16, 2016
The moon is a street light
dimming the gleam of stars
while amphibian love songs
fill the summer night.
poem- tempest August 13, 2016
Swirling tides roar
Air rumbles and crackles
Bitterness rises
A stomach bent on anarchy.
poem-puppy love August 5, 2016
Wrapped around my leg
munching a clattering antler
fuzzy black love.
.
.
Puppies are so sweet when they’re not chewing your glasses or devouring a black ballpoint pen on your cream leather sofa…
poem-journey July 31, 2016
This is not where I expected to be,
but they were right when they said
if you don’t plan where you’re going
you may not like where you end up.
So I am not staying.
The view is crushing.
The map is out, and every step of this journey
is planned. Tour guide at the ready,
ready to keep me going in the right direction.
I know the next destination, and I’m setting off
on a pilgrimage of sacrifice,
to atone for foolish wanderings,
and find the self I lost along the way.
poem-stormy July 14, 2016
Lightning has sliced the sky
forced apart air until the earth
is shaking with fear of it.
poem-friendly July 13, 2016
You are eager to make friends,
straining toward possibility
Mom! Mom! Let me go!
Hey! Hey! Friend!
But you must learn self-control
and prove reliable before
you’ll be unleashed on the world.
.
.
First puppy obedience class today. Someone was the most excited one in the room: way too excited to pretend to be one of the cool kids, and he talked WAY too much. Apparently he is truly my dog. (cough).
poem-rocky July 11, 2016
He says she’s not a pebble.
He says she’s more like an interesting rock formation.
Ah, but rock formations were once mountains
as mountains become pebbles
in time.
.
This mountain fills all we can see
I step this way.
You step that way.
Distance grows until we have disappeared from view.
From where we are now, we can each squish
a mountain between our finger and thumb.
poem-pebble July 10, 2016
I am but one pebble on the beach of your memory,
but oh how I remember the tides of you,
lapping across the surface of me,
making me shine for a moment,
glinting in the sunlight refracted by your ripples,
toppling me in your surf, ’til I clattered like applause
as you went back out to sea.
poem- hatted June 22, 2016
A jaunty hat catches eyes
inspires a smile.
A jaunty hat always tries
to beguile
but it’s too happy to seduce
its morals are not loose
That hat’s a joyful
welcome mat to fun.
Shawn L. Bird 