Sunday eve , feasting on 'Shepherds pie' , starry transmissions from a changing , churning southern sky ... Steeped black tea carried on the winds of tempestuous July , quietly lost in the birth of twilight
The juvenile , search light , embellished night , curious remaining songbirds
and front porch lovers
Tree frog , Katydid sonatas , apropos of the Georgia summer* ..

Frolicking 'Gray's' across golden seas
of Dawn fescue , easing collective thoughts pining
for morningtide rescue
Wild Daises committed to the ever rising
July sunlight , iridescent Hummers circling the piedmont
furrows , tickled Crows burst into laughter in mid-flight
Cardinals and Chickadees relay their gift of self
High above the diamond studded hillside shelf* ....

Salve a callous thought , O' reticent Whippoorwill
Cool evenings to bind my public wounds , a blue star for
repentant eve's , pungent grasses to reconcile beside
the Moonshine Narrows* .....

We are as vital , colorful , precious and vulnerable -
as a happy family portrayed with chalk by a child on a
quiet neighborhood street* ...

Industrious , Americanized honeybees
Working the Dogwood trees
Stopping at every colorful flower -
along the way
Making the most of the God given day* ...

The Eastern Star reigns just above the tree line
Brushstrokes of chalcanthite blue with Wisteria -
purple billows , orange sky dwelling o'er Carolina on this night
Infinite greens , Wood Thrush hymns , Honeysuckle
introspection with a view of distant sun laced copper thunderheads
The stillness of late afternoon replaced with the -
songs of the nocturnal world
A long awaited fragrant breeze
The hope of cool , uninterrupted tranquil sleep*...

Wondering aloud and redolent for that 'lone shade tree' occupying -
a knee high grassy field , armed with a good book , Sassafras tea and countless piedmont recollections* ....

Starless , airy Hill Country valley
Devoid of the painted sunlit emotion
Tree frogs rejoice in her solemnity while -
Lantern flies belay my ever darkened
gaze* .....

Georgia Sun relaxes in the fifth house
Hummers circle Florida sky from my shaded chaise
Blue Jays and Brown Thrashers lounge the
ripened Fig Trees , shadows walk the vegetable
gardens , nightshades ardent for cool , rainy reprieve
Crows muster high atop centurion Oaks
Bluebirds and Sparrows work the grass like -
two old time blokes as the ice melts away in -
a frosty *** and Coke* ......

Whitetail Does crossing my front yard
Thank you Mama Kuhn , Granny Wilson -
and Grammaw for warming my heart* ...

We are the afternoon wilted curcurbits  , leaves drawn and froward ,
pining for evening thundershowers , emboldened , tempting a watery death with blind ambition
Yet ,  we are also creativity trapped in religious admonition
Miracles discombobulated , manipulated
Named , taught , placed on a board with our heads facing the floor
Following a pre-plotted map with the robotic horde* ...

Childhood crushes , hiding in bushes , first kisses
Buzzing , unaware of the crutch of love
Standing by night fires , peering across the -
timothy carpet , embers crackling in route -
to heaven
Spinning the Pepsi bottle on a loud Cicada
evening , setting marshmallows afire , wondering
out loud over the Moon and stars
Our breath visible* .....

Elder blue eyes drip swift , sweet rainwater from piedmont skies  , collecting o'er sugar laden grasses , pooling among century hardwoods and bleeding , red clay gullies  
Blacktop lanes steam with the coming nightfall while Mourning Dove cry with her passing* .....

We've great faith in Mother June , hope for sunny morning -
miracles with myriad songbird tunes
I've shady Weeping Willows to rest beneath and contemplate my viability , still able to galavant the grassy hillsides , mocking many- a -latent physical disability
Privy to dirt roads crossing cool streams , wild Blackberry rows beneath pungent evergreens
Hayfields that reach the painted horizon , a blue water impoundment
with infinite wonder and surprise* ..

The best restaurant in town shares a building with a gas station
off the 85 exit ramp
The pace on Main street has been reduced to a crawl , cars drive through
with no one stopping , period store front brick buildings with no one shopping
Three tire shops within fifty yards of each other , a dilapidated
grocery and three liquor stores , city workers **** eating
the park while children play on swings , paper mingled with grass cuttings
blows North in the heated breeze
Neighbors are growing old , locked in routines , 'getting by' and
forever vigilant from porch swings
Young people waiting at bus stops , faraway removed from town ,
locked in daydreams , hellbent for tomorrow* .....

Today she's the green lady on the Black Sabbath album cover
Tomorrow she'll become the Morton Salt girl
On Sunday mornings my girl is Aunt Jemima followed by the
Mona Lisa in the afternoon
When she takes me by the hand she's indescribable* ...

I happened upon a quart of oil in the cereal aisle
Chocolate chip cookies with the paper towels
The reflection of Randolph on a mirrored ceiling -
in a packed Super Market at the five o'clock hour* ...

Squalls force the judgement of yesterday
When oblique giants commanded the afternoon
Washing rural lanes , cooling the green manmade
furrows , shadowing the very ground from where I
stand today  
Have the fruits of today retained the memory of my
yesterday* ...

Writing at night is easy---
Living in the safe poetic world , creating private visuals -
to blot out paltry expectations
Naked before people that hurt for amusement ,
dying a little each hour but unable to fly away
The inverted turtle struggling in the noonday Sun
A bullet without the freedom provided by a gun
Forgotten son ... Forgotten son ...Move on as he'll
never amount to anything at all
Writing your feelings on scrap paper you stupid little boy

Loneliness , a humid inferno of a day -
without the promise of rain
The hunted hid within tall grass writhing -
in pain
A drop of water prematurely called to the sky
The stranger at the wood-line in the
tempest twilight
The safety of thick , homemade curtains with
the ringing of chimes
Tears 'neath the silken canopy of night
Queer recollections serviced with anxiety
The blanket persecution of unwanted notoriety

On any ordinary day the presence of love
walks up from behind like mornings first sunshine
As I stare down in defeat my chains
are released , a rock subdues my imminent
fall , the earth now solid beneath tired feet
When confronted with dark passage the
gleam lends comfort to my distress , a welcome
hand commanding duress , the path by the
light made clear by loving countenance

Explosive wrath called into play
The odor of decomposition on a hot ,
bitter day
The rancor and confusion of 'Broken Arrow'
Mercurial Lieutenants ordering suppressive
fire on false objectives , exposing location
in a counter-offensive
Alpha , Niner , One call for fire
Copy-get small on the wire

Recalling collusion with ink stained hands and a chocolate smeared face , playing "Vietnam" with a  broomstick broadcast in black and white , no blood in sight Mr. Cronkite , no blood tonight* .....

Bucolic piedmont woodland avenues , where rain clouds touch the hillside after welcome showers have passed
Where pungent fields of green native wild grass connect ones place
with his past
Red-tailed Hawk sentries stand guard o'er Loblolly Pine forest
Contemplative Blue Herons work scenic marshland unnoticed
Land of Pink Dogwood , Cane and blackberry thicket
Of riparian wonders , foggy cattle- worn bottom land , lake dancers that twirl morning side West Point , Lanier and Oconee inlets
To rural lanes colored with the blessings of home* .....

Spiritual , cobblestone paths beside
familiar afternoon tapestries of lavender
blue , Wisteria Wrens proclaim hope ,
Orb Weavers balloon warm currents
with mysterious loom , June Pecan groves
sash-shay in the song of Dusk , evening
Crows bide Sycamore perches , bringing
a June day to close* ....

Twilight semi-tones reverberate in -
June moonshine sanctuary , Water Oaks silhouette
starry horizons as Cicadas rule the fragrant Chattahoochee hour of heavy , warm air and Crimson sunsets filled with dazzling
Lantern Fly summer flight and welcome poetic inspiration

We tread lands of promise and barren miscalculation ,
relishing the storied trees from whence we first appeared
Fostering hope 'neath the blue soul windows , tokens of
wind dancers that survey green meadows , payments rendered in song for sunny day memories and nervous nighttime sullen misery                                                          Purveyors of grandiose technicolor morns , rewriting beauties definition every second , challenging the impossible with bold determination , forever seeking answers from a storybook afternoon panorama* ....

The colors of the world have been
put aside for now , seasons of hope
lay bewildered somehow , joy introduced
to sadness , frantic calls for assurance are
not being answered , the spirit of love
lies abandoned* .....

Nocturnal , cool June ravishing in the flickers of gas lamplights
Quiet country lanes with familiar friends , Southern engines
tumble over the tracks bound for New Orleans
Barn Owls sing to Apricot horizons , the audible strain of methodic hardwood Rockers
Cicadas , Field Crickets and Katydids stir romantic hearts
Piedmont , Fall line hamlets lie at rest till morning*  ....

Silver bells in miracle laden available sky , the aliens are aware of our plight tonight , they continuously bathe our physical shells in love which we're unable to recognize , they gently coax and relax Earthly creatures with nurturing color on celestial nights , if we could only open our minds to the calm of twilight* ....

She is the first warmth of the new day as morning dew envelopes my exposed , quickened skin
A curious glance toward blue ambiance shelving mustering
prose to the God given natural holiday
Wildflower fragrant recovery , echoes of worked Earth , White Hereford
relaying the Dawn call to order
The business of man , plant and animal unfurled
Days of songbird early cacophony brought to steady relief
across pearl homesteads , cattle trails and country lanes

A fountain of afternoon life flourishing in the shadow of Summer evergreens ,  can Spider webbing capture a dream
Are fireflies perceptible from the Crescent Moon
Do Mourning Doves repetitively sing the same sad tune
Is love whispered in the wind , a wounded heart
on the mend
Will the Raven portend tomorrow , are our days merely
borrowed , should the world ever return to peace
Will my poetry ever quench my minds thirsted need* ...

Outside defining beauty in utter stupidity , for it changes every second
Playing guitar , but the whimsical melody defies the proper , mechanical method
Allowing thoughts to paper with no mathematical logic , coded messages of the broken hearted , static symbolism out of synchronicity
not unlike basic relationships that suddenly scream bewildered with
newfound intensity* ....

Rainwater becomes crystal ,  sparkling within golden wildflowers that catch the wandering eye in the afternoon sunlight ceremony , beauty and mundanity held together , autonomous , independent with visceral poetic emotion , a testimony to mutualistic endeavors ....
Portals through scattered canopies opening doors , darkness
called to its cobalt conclusion , freed of the daylight confusion ,
returning home to serenade my emotive night*  ...

A blue opening in the world as the rain was ending , gregarious Pigeons scramble atop store front perches in the drying western wind
Tired pedestrians labor wetted city sidewalks , late morning
silhouettes appear against post World War II row settlements
Saturday clerks prepare street displays , elderly couples window
shop for bargains with disdain , people and Freight trains trudge along , in route to unknown places* ....

Color the Wood Ducks skating the waters with
any shade that comes to mind
Imagine the River Birch mindful of the stream
in any shape you like
Paint the late Summer night with watercolors
as yet unknown
Call the wonders of the world before you as if they
were your very own* .....

Darkness with her companion love -
mix touch and memory with mystery
and *******
A Gibbous Moon tucked away in the cloudy
twilight , a flashlight sending Morse code
on a foggy night
Fidelity chartered vessels sailing the ambiguous shallow peril
Soldiers bargaining their mortality in the heat
of battle
Clarity bound in fetters of memory and worthless prattle

Pitch black nights , conniving 'Beast of Imagination' inch forward
with each lightning strike
The splatter of a thunderous shower takes command
over every sound in the house , all it's occupants
roused from midnight dreams , war rages overhead ,
the dog and cat jump under the bed
Our driveway is hosed and the roof scrubbed clean ,
the Peach trees are wind dusted and the pig pen made tidy and neat
The tomatoes are fertilized , the Squash brought back to life ,
our porch thermometer is thankfully on the downward spiral and the
Cicadas joyfully return on the hour with the Canary moonlight* ....

I recall sailing sticks in front yard rain pools when I was young
Box Turtles leaving their wooded cover for the cool afternoon reward
Insects of every size and shape on starry Summer night porches
Pungent , wetted tilled earth on June mornings

Precious , precocious Bluebird fledglings ,
seeking their bravado in the Red Tip hedges
Ruby Hummers running circles 'round Swallowtail dancers ,
Anoles playing tag in the Red Rose bramble
Chipmunks hard at work 'neath the Weeping Willow canopies ,
Bumblebees and Yellowjackets claim the stone- fruit
trees while aromatic Gardenia , Magnolia and Pine Sage belong
to Paper Wasp , Honey and Cuckoo Bees  
The Sunshine a long lost lover , the broom sage a friend
yet discovered
Cherokee brothers visit the Chattahoochee lowlands , Thor
rumbles on the Alabama border , the sky a mosaic of brilliant
hues , purple flowered grasslands and Morning Glory blues

Lantern flies descending from Water Oak canopies , hopeful Thrushes cry for Heavens hidden stellary
A seemingly placid pond becomes Molasses , quivers and grows eerie in wavering moonshine , Whippoorwills relay songs of the Creek Indian nighttime
Katydids , Field Crickets and Barn Owls fill Magnolia , Wilkerson Mill promenades , Shellcracker disquiet the countryside with topwater
explosions of hunger and predation* ...

Mimosa elders obscure the pink Azalea hillsides , timid Catbirds performing at behest of daybreak , vociferous followers of humid June traipse glistening Canola fields , swirling secrets of country brooks revealed in man-made clearings , Robin mothers boast of endearing Summer
privilege , of  Jasmine , Sugar Pine , Cattail tranquil late morning backdrops with whispering Hill Country breezes* ......

Sound of the morn , songbird articulations over -
colored Maple , Hickory leaf lanes and sky blue-gray portraits                                                      
To the face in the clouds , a toast at the wake of surreality
Concurring melancholy's invoice with stoic individuality
For the benefit of worn repetitive thoughts , a culled
mouth filled with morning wine , Sugar pine fortresses
delay the burgeoning warmth of day , rain waters seek their
level whilst the privately insane find themselves addressing their taut vulnerability* .....

We trespass insanity with great stealth  
at the close of day , jot bits of our self -
described tangled webbing to disclose later in prose ,
commit our imaginations to tap on the door
of the 'magnum unknown'
A goblet of red , a whiff of Borkum Riff , a
Moonlit tint producing a curious script
We're improvisational thespians surrounded by
our peers , Fire Ants on a forgotten marshmallow ,
a can of beer left in a hot trunk in Florida ready to
explode , a wind rattled Hound Dog trying to get home

Faith in the tempered evening , for the Friday night reverberation -
of hometowns just over the Shamrock green horizon
For the day end Amber-glow of well kept -
Summer gardens
Blessed is the power of tonights Harvest Moon
The Suns early dedication to the Chattahoochee flora of the coming June
For morning dew prisms that ignite rolling hayfields
For talking Indian rivers , Railroad townships and period Flour Mills

Busy Bluebird work songs , perched atop rustic farm bells
Maternal Thrashers and boisterous Cardinals thriving in sunlit dales
Forest of Da Vinci-esque brushstroke and Mozart timbre , living miracles pulled to Earths paternal floor , Red headed Woodpeckers tapping
on 'Heavens door'
May zephyrs spin wildflower mosaics , refreshed in the Water Oak catharsis , nurtured within her cooled forgiveness , lost in Mourning Dove musical
serenity* ....

She was a stray spot of Sun in a Winter garden
Snow clinging to life in the shaded April -
woodland , a precocious Sparrow that chortled -
in the Spring morning mist , a naked hardwood -
awakened to the curious mountain wind , then
disappeared*....

The natural gift of Loblolly evergreens
Mockingbird , tonic songs from colorful -
Red Bud trees
Wind whispered vows of Summer days -
with sun-swept dreams , Black Crow cackle -
across the violet , flowered green seas
Shadows of Dusk tint a Georgia blue -
canvas , Pin Oak splintered memories -
from a waning afternoon , fodder for the seasoned -
romantic , aromatic Jasmine and Honeysuckle fill , overtake
my senses*...

Fireflies shine over the midnight world
Testament to creation unfurled , Angelic
orbs that kindle the glow of young thoughts
Loves first kiss forever held in our precious heart
Writing our emotions in the twilight tapestry
The promise of forever carved on a moonlit
'Oak tree tablet' for all eternity
Holding on to one another on a Summer porch
swing , a journey through the Heavens on a
song filled evening

Life enthralls us for a brief time , ultimately commanding a high price
for tantalizing , perfect windowed views of impeccable awe , entertained by the infinitesimal stars of twilight , crepuscular, mesmerizing songs of animal in harmony with falling waters , the hue of windswept mountain blue wildflowers
Tis a great gift indeed , our days of awareness and wonder