selected WRITING

https://poetryandcovid.com/2021/03/02/three-poems-55/

December 21, 2020

The world sits under a huge dome

with all its belongings

as the year descends into the darkest day, people at home reflecting on their lives,

light and shadows cast,

dreaming of new pursuits,

harking back to ancient times, torch-lit caves, humans braving the cold and dark,

low ceilings, narrow passage ways,

paintings of hand stencils, finger meanders, triangles, circles, spirals,

bison, deer, humans dancing.

Botanical Gardens

The luxurious autumnal carpet does not disperse from anyone’s step and the giant sequoias

invite all to stand under in the peace.

It does not matter if you are more or less alone. If painful memories and feelings surface with the ducks dabbling their bills in the water,

small streams continue to gurgle—

never a stony silence.

Ducks

A Bufflehead grooms himself

amidst a family of Mallards near a pond.

They don’t mind that his white mask

has slipped around the back of his head

or that he has touched the water lilies.

https://scholars.wlu.ca/thegoose/vol18/iss2/12/

1.

Jacky wobbles, noses

the grass, foliage, flowers

like a bumble bee,

then falls away,

a puff of white dandelion.

2.

What was the world like before snow,

before going to different shelters to find a dog, settling on white, light, fluffy?

3.

The security guard says “Stay safe”

as I leave the grocery store.

Yes, stay safe, don’t love, don’t look,

don’t watch the black poodle sprinting across

the park and licking his companion’s face,

don’t look at the french bulldog

in the purple bow tie bringing her ball

like an ambassador to each distanced human,

don’t look at the golden retriever sauntering with the lone child, her tail lowered to half-mast.

Stay safe, don’t get a dog, don’t go to a shelter, don’t enter a pet store, look at the balls, frisbees, food bowls, carriers, beds.