The Future

For Magaly’s Prompt at Real Toads.  We are to take one of the 13 lines listed form Kerry’s Poetry, exactly as the line is written.  a beautiful prompt.  Kerry is a fine poet and an excellent artist, drawer of Tarot Card.  I fell in love with Toads when I found the site.  I thought some of the finest poets in the blogosphere posted their poems there. I still do.  I bow to Kerry in her greatness.  NOTE:  I used to live about 2 miles from the Dry Falls in the illustration.

The Future
“A weird time in which we are alive. We can travel anywhere we want, even to other planets. And for what? To sit day after day, declining in morale and hope.” ― Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle

the future arrives just as water
turns into a dry fall
jutting from the side of the mountain.
we walked underneath it
looking through the water at the
river below us –
we stood in the cave behind it and
and held each other close
the future arrives just as water
turns into mist on a cold grey day
turning the trees into mysteries.
the future is there… looking back at us –
trying to make sense of the
fiction we will have become.

Dry Falls Highlands, NC

Peeking Moon

An American Sentence for the prompt at Poets United Wednesday Midweek Motif – At the Moment…  The full cold moon is peaking 12:12:12:12.  My husband has been in hospital since Monday with pneumonia.

Peeking Moon
“It’s the kind of kiss that inspires stars to climb into the sky and light up the world.” ― Tahereh Mafi, Ignite Me

The full cold moon peeked in the window the moment I kissed my husband.

Lake Moon

For Linda’s prompt at dVerse Poets, for “Prosery” Monday. Prosery is where prose and poetry collide, sort of like a haibun but fictional. Mine is true. I rarely write flash fiction.  It is ended with a landay, an Afghan poetic form written and sung by the women.

 

Lake Moon
“The winter moon becomes a companion, the heart of the priest, sunk in meditation…” Yasunari Kawabata

I sat wrapped in my grandmother’s quilt by the dark lake.  The full cold moon shone white in the black sky and reflected on the water.  Never have I touched anything smoother than the reflection of that moon.  A few wild dogs passed within a few feet of me and lapped up the reflection of that moon.  A line from a poem popped in my head – “A cow is screaming across the arroyo.”  Suddenly I jerked awake.  It was pre-dawn and the crows were waking, cawing.  The cow was far away in my dreams and the dogs had wandered away in their quest for food.  The full cold moon brings long winter days – animals burrow beneath the fallen leaves for warmth.

Cold Moon

For Sanaa’s last prompt at Real Toads. She is introducing us to the Landay, a traditional Afghan style of women poets and sung. Typically they are a single couplet – the first line consists of nine syllables and the second with 13. I got this information from Wikipedia. I am keeping mine short and traditional – a single couplet.

Cold Moon

the full cold moon brings long winter days –
animals burrow beneath the fallen leaves for warmth

Pacifico

A 55 for the Toads Prompt – Art Flash 55. I have done a 55 in honor of Galen and in honor of Kerry who visualized these beautiful oracle cards. I will miss all of you. Hope I see you around on the blogosphere.

Pharos ~ The Lighthouse
Kerry O’Connor
@skyloverpoetry

 

Pacifico
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” John F. Kennedy

the ocean is almost silent
but for the suck of sand and
snap of bubbles –
a heartbeat rhythm.
the body always a sea folded
in on itself,
a nautical chart folded into a paper cup.
it is peaceful most of the time.
glinting in blues and greens
reflecting the bright moon at darkest night.

The Chef

For Skylover’s Word List. A word list for thinking persons. I wrote poems about Dorian Grey and his life and times for my PhD in Fine Arts. This is an old old poem re-written using words from the Word List. And this one is for Shay who loves my poems about Dorian Grey. The List For December: https://www.instagram.com/p/B5hHd0alUQN/ And for the prompt at dVerse Poet’s Pub. I am not sure if it is an “apostrophe”.

The Chef
“A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.” Rabindranath Tagore

Dorian Grey watched the sun
sinking below the horizon,
lambent, flickering out of sight.
chained stars gave the illusion of light
and false camaraderie.
He took the needle filled with
heroin and injected it into his veins.
Beside the trash cans outside the restaurant
he looked again at the stars,
with no curiosity.
in this life he was a chef.
he wore the illusion like a tatty robe
and soon, in the dawn
he would strip it from himself.
indecision – should he hang himself
at dawn or continue to live?
he pulled the needle from his arm.
no. he would continue to live
cursed with eternal life.
he didn’t need to die.
he only needed to look at his portrait.
the chained stars needed to be set free –
he didn’t think he had the strength.
he went back inside to finish the night shift.

Ch-ch-changes

For the Midweek Motif at Poets United -Change

Ch-ch-changes
“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein
 
I stood at the foot of my grandmother’s bed
and watched her draw her last breath.
It hit me then,
I will never be the same after
experiencing this.
I stood by my father’s casket and I thought,
I will never the be the same after this.
I stood in front of the minister with the man
who was going to be my husband and I thought,
I will be different after this.
I watched my mother draw her last breath
and I though I will never be the same.
I am an orphan now.
I will have no children to watch me die.
I will have no children to be changed forever.
I watch the seasons passing
leaves and flowers sprouting,
Rose petals dropping,
Leaves changing color and dropping,
Snow falling in the woods.
I am changed forever.
I am forever changed.