Good By Sweet Cicadas
As quickly as they came
They were gone
Silence
On this a day without rain
while power outages were wide spread,
cattle on the nearest farm
lay in the round shade of old forest grown
oaks once seedlings.
The spring there has been flowing instead
of drying up like untold numbers do in drought. The farm
in the time of the hunter gatherers has known
many histories and wild game killings.
I remember when an oil well was drilled in
on the flat near a pond. A man removed his clothes
and danced in the gushing black oil.
He was soon joined by a naked woman. They danced.
They danced wildly and hugged in
time, I thought to the music of a rose,
or the patter of the falling drops of oil.
A crowd gathered, cheering. They danced
those two to celebrate their good fortune.
I am pleased I did not miss their dance.
I wondered how in the world they would get clean.
but the crowd kept growing as word got out–
came only to watch them dance.
When my son, Josh was about 8,
he often sang in the shower
One day, when he was in the shower
I heard him singing, then I heard a thump
Concerned, I asked him if he was ok
He said “Yep, I’m good” and continued to sing
When he finished and jammied up,
He joined me in the living room and asked
“Mama, it’s ok if I sing in the shower?”
I said, that’s fine, sweetheart, if you want to
Then he added “But dancing isn’t a good idea”
I tried not to laugh as I said “no, I think it
would be too slippery to dance”
He said “Yep, I learned my lesson, no dancing
in the shower”
An apple a day does whatever they say
A banana at dinner might make you thinner
Cottage Cheese and a breeze goes well with these
Eggs, just the dregs will strengthen your legs
Protein that’s real lean is best so I glean
Chicken’s the pickin’ or you’ll get a lickin’
“If you rhyme any more I’ll walk right out that door.”
I don’t know what to say.
I don’t know what to do.
I guess I’ll write this song to you.
I can’t say the words.
I catch my breath—
I should start with what I love the best.
I love it when we kiss.
I love it when you smile.
I love it when you look into
my deep brown eyes.
I love it when we laugh.
I love it when you hold my hand;
—you let me know that I’m the best.
I love it when […]
On the hottest day of the year,
so far,
the power went off
with a thud and a dying
of the humming air.
The fan blades slowly
spun themselves out —
a blur turning clockwise
from the ceiling stopped.
Even the small box fan, loudest of all,
ceased it’s incessant hum.
A paperback copy of Dante’s
Inferno had kept it from sliding
across the floor.
Bloody irony, don’t you think?
Three thousand other houses
on the outage map lit up
a bright orange. The whirling
hum smothered everywhere.
We sat for half an hour,
trying not to stir, the air
growing warmer in silence.
A small penitence for
being alive.
and you feel helpless in the face
of the enormity of problems
you can’t solve, think small.
Put out food for the skittish, skinny
feral cats who sing their hunger
outside your window at night.
Stroll through your neighborhood,
revel in the scent and beauty
of gardens, the miracle of butterflies.
Carry books to place in Little Free
Libraries, canned goods to donate
to Little Free Pantries.
Pet every dog you meet, tell each one
they are very good girls, boys. Tell
their walkers their charges are beautiful.
Do good wherever you can. Love
beauty wherever you find it. Maybe
it won’t save the world.
Maybe it will.
Second day of summer kicks off pool season
the steam from my inner volcano blurring my sunglasses
sisters float and read as the afternoon light continues filtering through the deck spindles
as the sun shadowed leaves rustle in the trees, we lazily pick our favorite one
jojo likes that one for the shade,
Shauna likes this one for the symmetry
Cheri likes this one for the new blossoms
we end the debate as sunburned skin goes pruney
A perfect snapshot
I would turn up
the air conditioning
to ease my crisped skin,
but the cold gives me
goosebumps which hurt
the sunburn all the more.
