brief cool green hour interrupted by sunrise_ pierced with waves of shimmering heat

betta circles his glassy world wondering what's beyond the curve

sluggish stroll to red-hot mailbox_sunstroke summer

babbling syllables_ some strange ur-language before civilization sets in

blushing oleander flowers beckon_inhale my dizzy deadly breath

infused with moonlight, casting sharp shadow_ i hear first whippoorwill

sloe-eyed night-children wander aimlessly, searching for something else

Soul settled deep in this nest of solitude, incubating Self

at the end of the chilly day,
the edge of the woods is alight-
tall trees and low flickering fire-line
against the pale western sky.
the fierce blaze, wind-driven holocaust
burned hot and hard across the land.
the dancing fire-devils are gone.

a flashing firetruck waits
in the smoky air, the faint crackling radio
echoes the dying pops of the embers-
the quick snapping flare
of a pitchpine stump bright
against the long shadows.

God and man have fired
these woods for all time.
the neighbors congregate to watch
and talk, or lend a hand.
we walk the mile-long line
with our shovels and rakes,
soot-covered and coughing
to ensure the fire is dead.

crazy old sanders shouts
to us from the road:
"ticks and snakes! a fire's good!
it kills the ticks and snakes!"
he rides away on his bicycle-
a voice crying out in the night.
i believe him yet i bend to
blackened boots to check
my weary ankles for
signs of life.

hasty poet scribbling
unwilling to wait
while the world sinks in.
and the poem arrives.

hollow whirr of swift wings returning to clamorous nestlings' chitter

welded walls surround circle of my world_ abundant lost connections.

errant sulfur butterflies in salt-rusted sea grass after the flood

long straight furrows' futile attempts to rule unruly Nature...

this ruby heart cross-hatched with lifetime scars of love-songs lost

hold tight to aimless golden hours of childhood_ stay in saturday.

backs of envelopes, lost notebooks, strewn papers, vanished poetry.

dead summer
sun shines between my bones
long crooked shadows
how long have I sat here?
oaks shade gave way to yellow

oblique rays illuminate
these dessicated sockets
gilded parched pastures
all dew has been up and took
long before I first awoke

autumn crows' appetite
my earthly flesh plucked away
I hear my heartbeat
thump thump as the rabbit runs
knowing winters frosty breath

the rabbit-catcher's campfire
cannot warm shivering bones
under their dry leafy quilt
all desire is quelled . . .
content with malodorous meat

from this hollow frame
my ice-glazed scaffold
coyote steals a femur
it was mine to freely give
suffering it was his to take

my gnawed bleached bones
scattered ,full transformation
predator to prey
play to the nature of things
sea transience by precipitant moon

4.12.12
A collaborative renga written with tsac

optic trick_rainbow's vivid prism forever to forever

i brush the dust
from darkened leather seat
there, spun-out on my fingers
find a pale spider's thread
a silver strand newly shed
from someone's wintry head

so long and fine and womanly
tangled there_ i wonder
whose grey hair, old friends?
yours or mine or yours?
which silvered sister left behind
this single strand
of our common winter-web