Posts Tagged ‘poetry’

G

Gong

THE BAMBOO GONG

In the courtyard

The bamboo struck the railing on the roof.

Its gong was a summons to the son

Who would say,

“Papa-Sir, it is time! It is our time of day!”

Then the son would sparkle through the doorway

Revealing miracles in the smallest crannies of the court,

Unseen until his illumination

Magicked  them out of the shadows.

What some mistook for mushroom caps

They knew were chimney pots of gnomes.

What seemed a passing butterfly

Was the Mother-spirit hovering by.

They saw the never-seen-before,

And saw old things anew

In the courtyard of the sounding bamboo.

In the winter

Slaverings of sleet crusted the metal rail

Muffled the prophetic gong to a prophetic knell

Dimmed the light of the small son

Turned all the red rivers blue

Freezing the father entirely.

In the spring

There was resurrection for the bamboo

But not for the son

And not for the father

Who cursed the gong that called for the impossible

That called for miracles

That called up memories

And sighed continually as thought it could see

What he could not.

In his grief

Keen as the edge of his blade

He razed the court

Of all that conjured memories.

Monsoons turned the rest to mud.

The glare of the sun in the barren court

Leached all meaning from its walls.

There was no bamboo to call.

There was no magic in the courtyard.

There was no small son

And nothing to remind him

There had been a small son.

Nothing at all

~ And Yet . . .

F

Firefly

One Ordinary Night
With Fireflies

The long lingering light of midsummer
Encouraged croquet
Among other things.
In the Grange Hall, farmers
Built like plow horses
Talked of the crops,
Predicting the harvest,
On the lawn their helpmates
Domestically apt,
Talked of couples
Predicting betrothals.

The lawn lights, lit when full dark fell,
Did nothing to dispel a new-moon night
Or to dim the glowworm’s faerie fire
A schoolmarm knew, (who better?),
That a lovelorn ladybug lay in wait
For whatever mate her lure would fetch.
Did she take the first offer
For fear there’d be no other?

As a schoolmarm it fell to me
To keep the young from going too far
In collecting bionic flashlights
(And of releasing bugs from jars later
Secretly, to avoid the smiles
Of those plain practical people)
It was different when my Beau was around
But I was just as pleased when he wasn’t.

He was no Prince Charming
But then I was no sleek brunette
My white dress went with auburn hair and freckles
But it didn’t have the panache of scarlet satin.
In real life Cinder Ella settles for Cinder Sam
Or at least I was about to
In farming communities then
Even children knew the facts of life
Enchantment was a thing of the mind
Or of the moment
Like finding that Prince Charming existed
And his stay in your world be brief.

When the ingathering of youngsters signaled
The end of the evening was near
I slipped off for my quiet communion
With the unreality of the fireflies
But a flash of scarlet satin
In the arms of Cinder Sam
Was far too real for enchantment.
In the dark, was all too clear.

My  pride prevented my speaking
And I turned, with my last jar a-glow
Lighting my way to nowhere
Till, my lamp found another
You make me remember my mother
The mate to my lantern said
She held you must send them home
If you wanted to harvest enchantment
For many a year to come

We picked out a likely bower
For our luminous ladies in waiting
So they could continue their courting
In the dark of the night with the rest
Then we walked hand-in-hand to the Grangehall
Charming Prince Charming and I
And I knew that this year the harvest
Was going to be of the best.

E

Eve

EVA

SHE TAUGHT US TO EAT APPLE;
to savor,
its many forms
and unique flavor.
We defied our gods
for her fruit and favor
and now she denies us
does rightly despise us
as hogs rutting in an orchard.
She says she would be loved
not for her fruits
but for that very wit
that enslaved us.
GOD SAVE US!

D

Dinosaur

DINOSAUR EGG

FROM THE WILDERNESS WE WATCH. . . AND FEAR
WE ANTICIPATE
THE INFERNAL THING THAT MAY BIRTH HERE
ALTHOUGH WE MERELY STAND AND WAIT
EARTH-SHAKERS HAVE COME. . . AND GONE. . . BEFORE
WE
PERSEVERE

C

City

CITI – SCAPE

Concrete wings

In abstract skies

Wheel on high

Gather on ledges

Of crystal mountains

Where light leaves last

(more…)

GUILT COMPLEX

GUILT COMPLEX

When redman conquered redmen
(Wiped out s neighbor tribe)
He bragged in song and story
About his genocide.
The Paleface offered treaties
To salve the loser’s pride (more…)