Songbirds
I took risks
for the thick-lipped girls
in the heavy-hipped hills
they were lush
like mist-damp fingery
leaves on rhododendron
wild as slag glass
ember-hot
along the creek
in the dense sweet
of an apple orchard
their calico motions
could thrill me
would thrill me
when the wind spit word
of their silent waiting
it was there
beneath the weight of air
bodies rasped down-soft
loam alacite skin
flushed opal pink tones
hoarse whispers
tightened into tunes
feathers caught by treetops
Following My Wife’s Kayak
Upstream the Alafia runs the color of medium-brewed tea. It deepens and widens as it nears the bay, sags to a tone of Turkish coffee. Brine forces in, dragonflies retreat. Mangroves replace sweet gums and oaks, then give way to a swamp prairie with waves of common reed that sway in a Scheherazade tease. Her jasmine spray hangs faint in air. If this water blossomed into sand I would paddle stronger to get there. The magi found direction in darkness through a star. I follow a pony tail headed towards a shrinking sun and will arrive humble, but giftless.
Plight of the Bumble Bee
I tethered a bumble bee to a strand of black thread, tied a knot around its mid-section. It led me across the yard, from the forsythia to the lilacs, where it stubbornly clung, then clawed from flower to flower, leaf to leaf. With a slight tug I let it know that boredom was setting upon me like stirred hornets. There was no guarantee about the quality of my behavior, from that point. At school we were studying Henry VIII and his penchant for power and domination. He even snubbed his codpiece at the Pope. The bee remained defiant and determined. A garter snake slid near my foot, suddenly the bee began to look like Anne Boleyn.
Steve Meador’s book Throwing Percy from the Cherry Tree, released by D-N Publishing in 2008, was an entrant for a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Pudding House released A Good Sharp Knife and Pack Your Bags in 2007. His work appears regularly in print and online journals. You may enjoy his ramblings at http://thedisgruntledwriter.blogspot.com/
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