Coarse cobwebs, cradled in cotton,
divide sunshine and
smiling spies from a rambunctious band of
miniature moppets.
Skin, spinning in the wind,
grazes daffodil silk;
from two callow hearts, sharp auric arrows
are pulled.
Coarse cobwebs, cradled in cotton,
divide sunshine and
smiling spies from a rambunctious band of
miniature moppets.
Skin, spinning in the wind,
grazes daffodil silk;
from two callow hearts, sharp auric arrows
are pulled.
flowers
bandaged in rime
fall on barren bowers
as a chapel bell meekly chimes
the time

a weeping willow tree in the late afternoon sun//Allentown, Pennsylvania

Ducks in flight at Union Terrace Pond/Allentown, Pennsylvania
Please claim the words that will fix this home.
Please-do it now-before I walk away.
The wolves of December slice silence from my skin
and carry it towards a vast, foreboding sky.
Guttural whimpers herald a welcome separation.
Still, my heart hungers for our flame.
Do you remember lighting that flame?
We were so young and so very far from home.
That day, now stained in memory, was a critical separation.
We loped further and further away
from wisdom until we stopped under a counterfeit sky.
Unlike now, I could not recognize your skin.
Pale as pearl was my once youthful skin.
Yet, beneath your body, I was a garnet flame.
Nothing could stop us…not even the sky.
Here, beside my beloved fig trees, we fashioned a home
and tucked it neatly away
inside a perfect storm of separation.
But within our peaceful tempest sprouted a sinister separation.
Night after night, it gnawed at my amaranthine skin.
Wounds will melt away
with spring’s advent; an all-consuming flame
shall continue to warm your home.
Or, so I was instructed by a cunning sky.
Tonight, I plead with a most impotent sky,
asking for a final stroke of separation
to raze the awful duplicity of our home.
Bleak answers from heaven soak my skin.
They extinguish my wavering flame.
From my side, you step away.
I too, slink silently away,
forsaking the walls and suffocating sky
which fomented our separation.
A few miles down the road a flame
from a streetlamp shines upon my skin.
I seek out a more loving home.
A buoyant flame emerges from separation.
It burns brilliantly, far away from that dilapidated sky.
Only within this skin, am I home.
pixies
prance ere cockcrow
amidst fine sterling trees,
but, dreams will come when morning’s glow
is known
——
57 is an older cinquain.

This is the top of one of the two fertility statues at the entrance of Kanazakura Shrine in Yamanashi Prefecture. This particular one features a dragon.
Japan_November 2015
Strutting secretly by my side
in his thick
licorice coat, King had been a most
loyal friend.
But, when summer sang, he
abandoned me at
last—or, was it I who had
abandoned him?

Senga Falls, Shosenkyo, Yamanashi Prefecture/Japan
2015年11月28日
4:48 PM
those beets
smell foul, like feet
encased in dirty sheets;
thank you, but I’ll just stick to meat
and wheat!
—–
When I was a little girl, I really disliked beets. Now, I will consume them with pleasure. I suppose that my taste buds had to mature in order to enjoy them.
Is there a traditional Thanksgiving food that you have/had an aversion to? If you eat this food now, what swayed your taste buds into liking it? Merely the passage of time? I would be interested to hear your stories.
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! I hope that you are able to spend the day with loved ones–whether that means family, friends, or both.