The Poetry Marathon

magpie

You feel it

The buzzing in the air about your head

Electrified

You are being watched, senses heightened,

You look around frightened

For an unseen assailant

The light washes out the colour

Transforming the landscape into blocks

Of brown and blue and khaki green

Your rapid turning head is blurring

The scene

You hear a distant scraping

On the wire a blade is sharpened

The pounding in your head

Your blood

Racing like your heart

A whoosh, a crack right by your ear

Like thunder

A flash of feathered lightening

Striking again

And again

My Writers’ Circle

Today’s special
We get to put faces to names
But our middle names might as well be socially awkward
Writers, sigh
But I’m grateful, with these people I belong
I can be weird, quiet, even eccentric
I fit, we fit
How wonderful!

Ylva (She-Wolf)

Hackles relaxed, tail down loosely, face smooth, ears tranquil.
Pushes her nose into another. They rub cheeks. Wrestle the jaws playfully.
She senses danger. Strange odors. She shoos her friend away.
Stands erect.
Mouth open. Tongue retracted. Neck arched. Hair bristled. Head high.
The threat moves closer. Branches crackle nearby.
She howls. Teeth bared. Ready to defend her pack.

Gift from above #10

Snow is a wonderful thing,

it makes the little children sing,

and falls from the heavens, like a gift from above,

snow can never be an imperfect love.

 

They say there can never be two alike,

as streaks of light mercilessly strike,

barren earth, under white duvets,

peeking from holes in wool pockets.

 

Snow, hail and sleet,

two unwanted but in packaged deceit,

and each year, a renewed debut,

and far beyond a mixed adieu.

 

And if I were the last to feel Frost’s graze,

and live in the heart of Old Man Winter’s maze,

I would spend the days of last,

praying for a snow’s weather forecast.

 

18 // algal bloom

we watch the lake turn green
it’s not something we see happening

we can only tell it’s happened
by knowing that earlier

the lake wasn’t this green
the algae –and here is where

I struggle to write it—materialises
right out of the water

and before we realise
we can’t see the lake bed

I think: if I were to jump in
without seeing the bottom

I might hurt myself
or I might be fine

Moon

Moon showing its
True self..
Revealing in totality
No hiding
Moon reflection
Of my mind
Bright and radiant
Complete and wholesome
bare and naked.

Jaguar

The soft padding of paws

 slip through the jungle growth,

 pushing aside dinner-plate leaves

 and pressing Crayola flower

 in the sponge below them.

 

The mirror glow above

a scenting nose

 is all the warning given

 as the crouch becomes a leap

 and a heartbeat becomes dinner.

 

Velvet lined ears twitch

 side to side, back and forth,

ever vigilant for the interloper’s steps

 pushing through the undergrowth

unaware of what lies there.

 

 

 

Jaguar

Lue

August 13, 2016

The Yawn

Hey, watch where you point that thing

You know it’s dangerous

Were all adults here

And you know what it does to us

Now that you’ve got it started

That chain reaction, the ripple effect

You have us all in the middle of a yawn

Not a dry eye is left

You went ahead and set it free now it won’t leave us be

Contagiousness at its best

I asked you before now I’ll ask you once more

Could you please give that yawn a rest

Furry Monstrosity

I stretch out my legs and stiffen my back,
a full body stretch to wake me up after every nap,

covered in fur,
that matches my purr,

I have sharp teeth for lovable nibbles,
and am often mistaken for a vicious animal,

Friends,
some long forgotten,
others just outside,
I’ll call upon until they arrive,

a chirpy meow, or a full blown roar,
and they appear outside my door,

when I am bored,
I curl up in a ball,
or roll on the carpet in the hall,
sometimes I stumble and I fall,
but my owner’s love me, hairballs and all,

oh, the house cat life,
it isn’t so bad,
with the best parents I could ever have.

Ginger

Your first dog

is a first love

Even if she has a chronic sore on her back

and gets fat and tired

so you hardly notice she is missing

when she wanders into traffic and dies.

There was still that moment when Ginger and I had a special bond

Outside the complex world of the big people.

In the long ago time when your dog just followed you aroundDay

and there were no leashes or poop pick up laws.