Payette poems on Hello Poetry

Everett V Minshall Aug 2014

Love,
what a difficult subject,
yet a stream of consciousness
could help understand what is felt.

Was it love or abuse?
Only time could tell---
perhaps love is
in part
using another for gain, and accepting the pain,
till another time when both love a'gain.

8/16/14

Sub Rosa Dec 2013

Population 7,451

I could stumble from one end of town
to the other,
a mile of tripping over my own feet
somewhere between the water and the hills
between the fishes and the coyotes.

Twelve years as a tide,
scraping the same sand with raw fingers
waiting for the current to tug me out to sea.
tossing and turning,
the city set on spin-cycle.

We built a house atop a mound of dirt,
overlooking the valley of sticks and tanned grass
inhabited by the breakers.
The leather skinned reptiles who found dust
beyond their childhoods.

Where the tide has crashed for a hundred years
and the floaters and drinkers,
the crumbling ambitions have washed ashore
along the Payette River.

I see the same horizon from every street corner.
The only variable
is the number of cars that pass through everyday
and have the unfair luck
of escaping the city limits.

Tenisyn Jun 2013

That Was When I Knew

The summer air was crisp that night, despite the heat of the day.

The booming of dynamite
Echoed off the rugged faces of the Payette River Mountain range,
Illuminating our world in reds, greens, and golds.

It had been a long couple of hours of idle chatter and small talk:
Despite our mutual scars and bruises,
We were strangers still.

Millions of crystalline stars twinkled above us, peeking behind cloud of smoke.
You joined our small group around the fire.
I tugged at my shorts, self conscious by your presence.

The way your shoulders sloped was familiar.
The asymmetry of your lips was endearing.
I couldn’t remember your name.

We sat in comfortable silence, watching the flames grow higher.
You added a fresh log to the blaze,
The flames eagerly licking away the wood,
Black tendrils of smoke reaching higher, grasping for fresher air.

Your eyes found mine.
And that was when I knew.

— The End —