Co-habit

Coyotes call out
as my alarm
under the mourning doves
coo who
take shelter and shade themselves
for the sunrise says something
predictably ominous and
October or somber.

Today, together, we all rise,
pecking or rooting our way
to live through the next
far-off sounds
Encased in lives that spin
bodies that stir
the world around
in space and time.

The shadows these worlds cast
are not solid bodies and growth
gives off chemical cues
that like evaporation,
dew always dissipates
into tomorrow,
there and gone,
a scent of something passed.




Photo credit: National Park Service from USA, taken 8/2017 [Public domain].

Bacchus Backyard

The vineyards blanketing the shadowed slopes

span across the near horizon

Solemn in mourning lilac

Steam rose from out of the spires
and out of wooden crosses,

The sun masked itself 

in a shy white haze

that climbed through all 

betweens and up over 

the narrow rows, hurdles crosses

an angel in the cemetery
lands
the feet feel home

The wine is red, the blood is fresh

and tears dew

nourish the vine. 


Painting by Caravaggio [Public domain], Young sick Bacchus (1593) via Wikimedia Commons.

Always greener

I have been watering the grass,
I have brushed my teeth-wait-yes,
with the water on too long
I have washed my car-
worse I have had it washed.
I have cut the two best roses
for myself by the coffeepot
to smell in the morning.
I have said too much,
I have said nothing at all.
I have flooded the attic-
and the walls may cave
in on me-
but that would be selfishly
about me.
I have sunk to new levels,
as water will often dew.



Image By Leon Brooks [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Scratch and sniff

We rose                        Sun hid
I have smelt                  falling stars
pungent peopled          drapery for day
leaning up                    steadfast
petals out                      rooted repetition
for dew                        digs deep
                   Sinks in

                   (either way).






Painting by Winslow Homer, Woman with a Rose (1879), in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.