Serpentinarium

Sitting, thinking, longing
Dark rain blankets morning cool
Voices absent, quiet, gone from the day
Drops from the eves punctuate stillness

Cold seeping around my collar
Early winter's breeze chilling my heart
Shards of trees lay weeping on heartless concrete
As their colors fade, their bones crushed
Ground under foot without thought

My own guilty foot walks on

Shards of the past lay in disarray
Desolate, cold and lonely
The young hawk, weary but flying
Hungry on the edge in the moment
Thinks no further than now

My mind seeks innocence

Words play back and forth, doves of affection
Laughter floats on the air, leaves of joy
A thought tinged with grief, dragged from the past, borrowed from the future
Tears shed and wiped away in love and compassion

Walking, talking

Moments shared in the sun held in crystalline memory
Reflected in a smile
Fingers twine, the touch tender, feather light
Eyes meet, misty in the presence

Arms embrace, flowing warmth joins the two

Lips touch and touch again
Time stops

Joy explodes

Love blooms

Leaves changing colors
Temperature slowly dropping
Darkness comes quickly

Seasons blending, overlapping
Memories as bright as the fall foliage
I hold onto the summer's warmth


(a poem from a friend, posted with permission)

Bitter cold hands, stinging on a bicycle ride
Fall leaves whispering to the road's edge: Orange, red, brown

Bridge, a hundred feet above smooth rocks in river

Concrete rail, concrete sidewalk
Scattered smashed glass, laying in wait for tires, shoes

Twenty minutes til office warmth

Sparkling blue lights in rain and colored leaves: Cops on Confederate Avenue

Sitting in the cold
Geese fly by honking loudly
My eyes steal a look

Colored trees, cloudy
Footsteps on a road to light
Mind flies in the sky