People think it says my name.
I forget that it is there,
not seeing it the way others do-
it says Unity,
anyway.
Signs you say...
it was the pine that drew me here.
The smell, the sap was worth all the needles,
it gave me something to do
as a conifer.
The creek out back, back at home was the gate,
outside.
There were no bears there
despite the name given.
Summer rains are sad it is said,
but how a monsoon is cleansing
and out of character,
it is welcoming.
And I agree, the cherry blossoms do resemble sunset clouds,
or blushing cheeks,
“searching the wind
the hawks cry
in the shape of its beak” said John Knight
follow my calligraphy
do you know the inference
“The sparrow hops,
Along the veranda
With wet feet.” (in Spring)
A fisherman, a nun,
the snow, years past,
the pattern of the iris
and blood stain of cherries
are simply symbologies
and not to fear.
When I was a little person
my grandfather used to make me climb his rickety old ladder
to pick the bulging bunches of bing cherries
from the neighbors' tree
which hung liberally
over the fence.
Good fences make good neighbors, he would smile casually.
He also read Frost to me.
My grandmother would watch me from the kitchen window
clutching her hot black cup of coffee
staining a fake bone china cup
showing her dentures in propped open way,
her name was Pearl.
Lately, the murders have caught my eye,
and I noticed how they prefer the pines.
Reeds and ginger,
even a shiny new Gold Medallion
are futile flora for them,
they mock my gestures in watering.
All the while, the falcon still
stalks the tiny ficus dwellers,
the cats watch back intently.
Tenacious,
I have not given up either-
even when my thoughts remain stained
with disease like Worry.
Thankfully, the summer rain washes all the blood off the driveway,
he succeeds
tiny under feathers fly low as
cherry juice runs by in a river
where I stand.
The crows cry out
my name, blaming the mockingbirds
fortune on the falcon, my fault.
It all sounds the same,
sole(less)ness, a cumulus,
one cymbal marks the end.
Painting by Frank Nuderscher, Cherry Blossoms (1914) in [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
