Friday, December 2, 2011

November Poem-A-Day Challenge

Prompt 27: a tribute poem

He returns!

i see he's lost weight
not eating well?
too much to do?
he is a spirit of survival
in a world of giants, enemies,
the hungry, the sly.
and she? where?
busy raising the family?
perhaps it's necessity
brings him here this dusk
bouncing across patio
bricks, diving into
rosemary bush, his
blue head and back
enthusiastic, electric.


Prompt 28: "_______ Story"

The Untold Story

That one at the back of your throat
scratching like a quill, words fading
quickly; it'd be better to cough it up.

Or that one riding the horse you
never mounted, a clotted mane and
fly-switch tail carrying it into the future.

Perhaps you have kept one in a tin
embossed with symbols of good cheer
too enclosed now too long to set free.

Or: you buried your library of stories
in the back yard; the trees grow tall
and you knw why, but you're not telling.


Prompt 29: 1. an evening poem  2. a daytime poem (2 for Tuesday)

Summer Time, Saving Daylight

The birds have no idea I'm checking the clock
It's ten to eight, that time when the trees are
halved by light, their leaves casting shadows
as if painted on trunks. One mauve agapanthus
shakes its head; my friend Mr Superb Wren
uses its stem as a stepping-stalk, leaping
into the hedge. Larger birds perch on
clothes hoist arms, and possibly do wonder
where so much ground cover has gone.
A pair of pigeons discover water, drink
and bathe together. Unchangeable, despite
the lengthening of day, the trees and birds
dance between earth and the sun.


Prompt 30: "against all odds"

After The Pirates

To speak so calmly about capture
is to exist without body or mind
to dwell in a world more foreign
to us than that of the captors.

To be human is to cherish
one's own beauty, strength,
sense of self. To leave that
love behind is love itself.

The boundaries of what is
and what is deemed normal
defy maps, reaching into
the deepest currents, beyond

clouds, breaking borders.
It is indeed humbling
to contemplate how creative
the hunter  and hunted become.






































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