An empty pop bottle filled with ants
A Fall tomato plant blooming as if its children
even have a chance
A cigarette pack book marker in a Gideon Bible
Bits of blue sky laden with thunderheads
Shellshocked warrior discerning life from death
Shoot me while I sleep so the checks will continue
Remove my face from evils menu
Throw the oxycontin into the lake
To mingle with mud in a watery grave
Call me Wednesday longing for Thursday
Two a.m. contemplative over the dawn
Refuse strewn by wild dogs
Forage did I in hopes of sanity as do the midnight hogs

Squally weather evolves into 'Life's Saccharum Wine' , dripping from grateful leaves and every vine
Seasoned with tangy , Foothill tree and honey- flower alike
Forest patrons cull their mouths with all their might , a parched countryside becoming drunk with delight
To partake in natures vintage from blessed Earthen cask this
rain cooled September night

We created fire
But flame is uncontrollable
It fed selfishly till it's sustenance -
was gone
No amount of hope on the wind-
could carry even one precious spark forward
Tis nothing but a fiery memory as I
now cautiously travel onward* ...

The creek partitioned the fertile lowland
The river-road split the pasture land above
The Conestoga linked the east with their western kin
But the railroad divided men by the color of their skin

Filtering pertinent nighttime voice from babble
Rolling Thai stick , taking in a needed Sunday
Checking this wrist watch out of pure habit
Tapping a beat on a rocker arm
Admiring two Oaks with the Moon at their back in Rico small town charm
Blowing smoke rings into space
Rocking with the evening world at my -
own pace
Katydids jailed on window screen
I'm in touch with such scenery  
Loner , abstract clouds trapped in sunset
We've become companions tonight , headstrong , friendless
Cascading revelry , musical and relentless

Elizabeth Taylor perfume battled a spent .38 caliber
shell casing , ten o'clock coffee singed on the eye , country music -
playing on a cable station with the side door opened to -
the March night
Radios crackling , blinding red and blue lights
Curious neighbors , howling dogs , quiet chatter
Dad became a routine suicide on a police blotter* ...

Feeling borrowed , colorless
Thumbing through a Family Bible
Like pressed flowers , ancient stories
long forgotten
A black and white lady with a sad
expression , eyes that've lost their
direction
I wonder what she would say about 2016
The same thoughts I'd have on 2063
Did she write rhyme to keep her mind nimble
If rain was understanding was it ever enough to fill a thimble
Hopefully my picture will provide temporary diversion for a future family member

A day when the Sun made the monuments come to life as a lone ray lit the center of town from an Autumn cloud
Skyscrapers floated in reflection , young couples bound for Olympic Parks direction
Flags skillfully wrought by Northern breezes
Urban glass-steel giants secured a lone patch of Piedmont greenery
Leaves ran with wild freedom
Laughter , confections , security
Human connections and recognition
Smiling , Saturday people with unrehearsed moves
Every tall tree , songbird , vendor and playful child made special
For one perfect hour love briefly appeared to rule

What amount of sugar will render '*****'
palatable

Greens are curious eyes on exhausted game
Exasperated , miffed and melancholy all the same
Blues are hair bows , gray for gun metal gizmos
Red for flak at treetop level , white for pain
and tears for no known reason , brown for eyeing the
hunted out of season , Tiffany lamp soldered bits of glass ,
hiding histories homicidal past
Purple to calibrate the down hill day , yellow for catching
a ride on the astral plane
Pink for clearing , Winter afternoons , Nutmeg cobblestone lanes
Black for tyrants with the keys to destruction
Amber for Sheriffs that carryout their coercion* ...

The Angels clasp candles on Summer nights
They implore salvation in twilight flight* ....

Wild Turkey sojourned the lavender -
encrusted , wooded depression
Panola sunlight tarried , engulfing a peppered
granite expanse in the vivid 'Light of Creation'
Life teemed in pools of rainwater , Jays foretold the impassioned hour
Pungent , dew marinated fields shone as the
Lamp of God* ......

Trusted , clear-coated , cured cane pole
Can o' corn 'neath a Maple umbrella
Brown Trout skimmers popping the top of a runaway
river
Red , gold leaf boats sail the eddies
Painted hardbacks , soft shelled sinkers
Lolly-gagging Mudcats , sunlight in her
turbulent mirror
Cold water shivers , warm flannel shirts with
wet rolled up Levi's , Peanut butter -apple jelly
sandwiches with a peach Nehi
Cattle trails homeward
Honeysuckle boundaries , Red plum , Mimosa ,
Honey Locust companions
Brown sugar tended earth , June corn , young hideaways
Purple wire-grass terraces , wild Dove lining
barbed wire fencing with late hour songbirds escorts* ..

To tarnished golden escapements ,
lonely eves dividing the days -
in hubris moonlight
For the taut brushstrokes of Dusk
Orange , blue upon red
Gray home fires on icy morns
To the carillon of October wind
Sunlight across brown grass ,
now estranged* ....

Pleading for routine
For the same breakfast from -
the same restaurant
The exact booth , the perfect
parking spot
2.5 miles home , waiting to leave
my vehicle till all traffic passed
Black coffee , orange juice , CNN
Triangular blue pill , folding work shirts
with no place to go ,
Closing blinds , cursing friends , letting
telephones ring
Writing verse , fighting guilt , planning my
next meal , crushing needed relief to
satisfy this ******* memory
Lighting creativity , forming complicated guitar
parts , locking doors* ...

I wonder if ketchup does the same thing to Caviar that it
does to Catfish and home fries* ?

The Crows will soon cackle after confiding in
a Myna Bird* ....

Reach to the corner of the room
Pull the film to the floor , set the mind to explore
Unlock a door , throw away the view you've been given , feast upon life through another dimension
Surpass the whim of fools , let knowledge become your jewel
A phalanx of stars await your conjugation -
Bask in their heavenly education* ...

Meadowlarks in the canebrake
Twilight hints with fuchsia trickery
Animated waning Moon , sylvan
troubadours in perfect tune
September Season of the Witch ,
Barn Owls cry out in perfect pitch
Starlings crowd field barns , Mockingbirds
spin Ghostly yarns , brown leaves crumble
in the eerie wind , Stallions whinny sending
shivers across bare skin
Cowbells clang in the pitch black night
Coyotes howl from the hillside
Tin roofs clap under their own power
Wind chimes sparkle and call , hour after hour* ....

Happy Silver Maples ride the green carpet
of Autumn
Persimmon tokens of love shine with
golden fortune
First daylight fawns perform for a doting mother , Alabaster mountains collide in our Northern direction
Windsong , wild Orchid perfume , pirouetting Thrashers
Airborne ballet of Monarch , flower on the wind , Flycatcher
Front yard swings , Iron bells on the hour , feather gondolas -
ride the ripples on city ponds
The reassuring timepiece on the Courthouse Tower
The metrical tapping of the plow
Field roads run parallel to White Pine leviathans
Roads that bare their reason with the white clapboard
of home nestled at the tip of the horizon* .....

Nary one tree , stone or blade of grass
was dry omitting the feet of Elijah
The pang of drought quelled
Hickory and Oak sought Elysium
Talebearer Whippoorwill and Thrush
proclaimed the blessings of Jehovah* ...

Repentant in the muddy waters
Circuitry of crystal exposure and
sandy bottom
Becoming one with Cotton Indian Creek
The olive cool link longing for an ocean
to call her own
River Birch mother what human frailty
thou hast borne witness of
Terrapin brothers what do you patiently
wait for
Collage of cirrus sky warning , Gibbous Moon
address
A Blue Heron to share my loneliness* ...

Eyelids protect us from the unknown , blocking evil aimed in our direction
Closed in the stormy night , saving our minds from unbridled possession
Turning our backs on what we refuse to understand
Safe in a familiar , sealed room yet curious about the other side
Abstract shape and color leading thought to temporary rest
Opening doors carved into our walls , praying for the best*.....

Winter mornings tinted with frosted chalk
Beautiful , fleeting and delicate , at the mercy
of the eastern Sun* ....

In the name of remarkable stories revealed with each precious leaf , brush stroked layered , hallowed Marigold evenings ..  Every ambient , salutatory stand of communicative , native tree ...   To the toasty breeze spurring the music of Mother Earth within the guarded canopy
The preordained navigation of Warbler , Grasshopper and Bumblebee
For every cloud seeking finality guised in plummeting rain
The call of Pheasant across the chilled late October plain* ....

Concoctions of morning Blackstrap Molasses , Apple blossom honey
Afternoon Sugar Cane treat Sundays
Catfish feeder pond thrills
Stirring Bobwhite Quail wood line hideaways
Plentiful , native green grass runways
Kerosene lanterns , john boats o'er -
Black Crappie midnight waters
A thousand new songs rippled the moonlight -
causeways
Lakes melting into night
The warm , thick air of first light
Mockingbird chirrup , Killdeer call
August morning star convocations of -
Crape Myrtle with butterfly epiphanies

Dappled in freed sunshine
Monday's forested , stain glassed -
visage of hope and resurrection
Of stippled , newfound colors reading
the diary of lovers , Water Oaks bathed
in moist , diamond hue gloss
Clover , Thistle and Daisy trip in Northern breath
Autumn , Coweta river valley blues ,
Whispered , misty Chattahoochee afternoon views* ....

Vanilla tractors leave laden impressions upon Winter fields , hungry Crows forage turned ****-land yield
Diesel fired , mechanical Mules struggling in the Cobalt Blue December morning
Chimney smoke stalling at treetop level , clanging songs of the harrow , frosted furrow , Goose grease and burning , broom sage meadow* ...

Give me the hewn , striped grassland of an -
Appalachian 'Holler'
A simple log home with laying hens -
and vegetable gardens
Spiral roadways to rustic hamlets
Foggy mornings and painted sunsets
Wooden bridges crossing crystal streams
Colored Autumn hardwoods , vivacious evergreens
Period rustic barns and pumpkin patches
Rolling hillside , dulcimers and Winter mountain thatch
Store front rockers and homemade Sweet Potato pies
Gingerbread cookies , black coffee and starry nights*....

There's a saga in every direction
Stories to be told , a lesson languishing -
o'er tilled countryside and dirt road
Smokehouses , immaculate small towns
Sorghum presses , Pecan groves , Loblolly Crowns
May Robin carols , topwater Bream slice the surface of
brook fed glass ponds  , Whippoorwill's , Pileated Knights worshipping the given Dawn

Lamenting the day
Considering the night
Obeying powerful invisibility
Love plus music mingled with electricity* ...

My adoration before God Almighty , guised in red sunset , deep blue eyes that ignite night's golden firmament
Guiding Pelican silhouettes vying for home , Eventide peace before Tybee Island shores* ...

Cold , sugary watermelon gives me chills
Red ripe melon is a Summertime thrill
A bowl full of fun , this ancient dish
Keep sweet melon vine on our list* ...

Todays golden setting is a facade masking danger that lies in waiting , there must be a Bobcat from a treetop preying , voracious raptors diving in the glare of the Sun , a Water Moccasin ready to strike for no reason
Coyote's strategically blocking all avenues of escape , an alligator moving quietly in the everglade
Tiger mosquitos with innumerable disease , well traveled Deer runs racked with fleas
Wild dogs running the moors , Government agents behind closed doors* ...

We notice our reflections on -
'Looking Glass waters'
November zephyrs send duck feathers -
like sailboats across the pond , nervous Geese
hurry along , ten curious Mallards greet us at the shore
A tickled Crow burst into laughter , a stern Jay
follows soon after
Sugar white clouds with blue and pink wisp
A moment in time with laughter from our lips
Skipping stones , snuggled in winter coats
Zestfully sharing , exploring , unencumbered emotion                                                          ­                     Continually falling in love* ...

Blue jean hitchhikers , sweet cornrows
Wild Plum groves off Roseberry Road
Knee high grassland , matted trails home
to dusty , dog day Farms* ...

Refer to me not as the squall -
for I was the Chickadee bathing
in it's watery toll
In December snow I was the exposure -
of naked skin seeking closure
Alone at the shore in fear of mossy stepping -
stones that led to the popular side of
the River Life & Love
A besieged Castle chess piece facing diagonal attack
A burlap sack filled with lessons of stone across a tired back* ...

Tempestuous , random loveliness stands -
Lady October clothed in 'Sky Red gown' , Raven haired recital from
Persimmon , Mimosa rafters sketched in verglas night fallen cover
Autumnal ****** kiss of Winter and brown valley panoramas
The wind driven pang of chill
Golden blades skip , funnel , mask
Moist , visible breath
Live Oak naked lecterns with Mistletoe
Mittens , sock caps , scarves
Hot Sassafras Tea , oatmeal cookies
Barren groves
Wood stoves
Hardwood smoke clinging to the arctic day
Window views , red faces , maplewood fires* ...

At the reluctant transition of the daystar
Where lantern flies tote the account of murk admitting through Oak quarter
The colored palette of Dusk swallowed by the curve of the Earth
Umber tree line , audial aberrations , the fervor of burgeoning , multitudinous songs before ebony companion Venus
Dove coo , Katydid trill , Mosquito hum trios
Bobwhite Quail give thanks to the dying day , as
reverberating odes do carry from blackened palmettos* ...

Kentucky Autumn lanes with -
calling river valleys
Chimney fire vistas , windy mountain confetti
'Holy Oeuvres' upon Appalachian hardwood canvases* ...

Maculate Cheddar Moon nights o'er Aquarian countryside
Hinterland for young lovers , pathways for romance rediscovered
Shangri-La midnight glen , flaxen mane , astral beacons of
Smoke blue in concerto with Flame red
A reflection on a chosen star at curiosities unlatched gate
Traipsing rain washed , cool clover with strawberry tressed , porcelain 'Inamorata'
Ebony hour capitulation and seduction* ...

Timpani's shook terra firma in sixteenth notes
The chorus of rain , wind racked hardwoods -
and door chimes silenced the known world
The storms fragrance radiated through every window as
I sought the cool side of the pillow* ...

Feeling the percussive tones of my guitar
occupied with clouds , rain drops on
hedges , dust on window ledges
A wet glass reminder on a magazine
Brown leaves carried away in a breeze
People I've met then come to regret
The pernicious ways of family
The altruistic behavior of Randy* ....

Have you ever heard the morning bell calling cattle from the dale
Seen the Dawn dance of foraging laying Hens
Been within earshot of the song of Mourning Dove on the November wind
Watch steam pouring from turned Earth in early Spring
Hot tea 'neath the fragrant Magnolias , witnessed
the March Dogwoods or the June Begonias
The frolicking new Calves of April or
sat beside a Georgia stream to listen for a spell* .....

Paw Wilson clutched his dressed Auburn Market hare waiting on a trolley
His Friday night reward from a long week of barbering
Fifty cent haircuts to keep his family from starving
Paw cleaned his dress socks in the kitchen sink
Ironed his shirt an slacks while he sipped a drink
He would fall asleep drunk at the kitchen table
Paw Wilson woke up at five bells with the music of Jimmy Rodgers , whistling , ready , well groomed and able* ..

Sister Yellow Swallowtail , please take me for an afternoon ride
To the tips of Douglas Firs with an Eagles view of rolling hillsides , o'er stained glass , picturesque Hill Country skies
For an afternoon twirl atop the tallest Oak , a flight within the Dogwoods by natural , splendid rote
A stop at Port Lake for refreshments and quiet reflection
A zig-zag trip home full of laughter and amazement* ..

At the equilibrium of land and wave
Along granite jetties in battle -
with the ebbed blue sea
Across the misted olive waterfall terminus
Basking in the glory of the Almighty
from Blueridge escarpments , creek narrow tower
and river divide* ....

Draw hither golden blade , brother to sassafras and veronica
Purveyor of delicate , sanguine architects in pastoral visage
Of ebony cloth cooling evergreen shadows within -  
Rosin incense , spearmint infused morning dew seasoning
o'er felled timber escarpments , Summer rain infusions of
petit , lavender violet corsage and August whimsy
Petrichor , Persimmon Clover bouquets , juvenile , song filled
brook-sides , poetic diamond studded sandbars , Chattahoochee
Crayfish , Shellcracker , Blue Heron land of Creek and Cherokee
fathers
Of Towaliga , Bear , Moccasin , Indian streams
Emerald swept low country isles , songbird arbors , peridot waterways
beside whitewashed shoreline* ...

Curt morning Cardinal , thy gamut echoes the Pin Oak grove
Songs that travel the back country road
Scarlet harper 'neath the cane creek valley , trilling , wild berry , muscadine captaincy
Tenacious , agrarian , amusing wonder* ...

Knag's , branches shaped like hands and long limbs
Eerie expressions on knee high stumps
A 'Witches Nose' hanging off a Red Oak
A Pumpkin Head glare in the Pine bark
Hoot Owls playing mind games in the -
cool dark
An old Bobcat screaming to the Harvest Moon on a
lark
'Possums with glowing eyes
Sudden breezes on quiet nights
Brown Bats flying around porch lights* ..