Some random people are stuck in my head. They smiled at me and disappeared. Just transient smiles. I don't know why I recall them ten years later.

the tiny dog the tiny dog
walks slowly in my brain
and tells me of ted bundy and startrek
i am the big dog in charge
and leader of the mind
though very uncoordinated
i strive to be free ha ha
don't miss the transient memory
it is all there to see but i
turn away and watch the shadows
on the wall,,,,,,oh so beautiful

The Magpie dies in Act No. V
Though the audience was hardly privy
It was only me, in the backrow seat,
Who saw the gentle feather
Who heard the silent clink
Its branch that swayed bare
Shivering only but a moment
Before it found a new pair of feet

The roar of the crowd rippled and swelled
With the song of the main headline
Licking the tune, wetting the eyes, but at the end
My lashes remained dry
For I, at least, could spare a glance
Toward the soul who belted Act I through V
Laid angled below the plastic bushes
Gone, dead, died

Wood burns from blue flames
Air drawn in does change
Prepared for events to unfold
Stationary held for take off
Past the count of numbers out
Breathing easier now
A transient being announced
Green lady elevates state
Orange eyes merge, lights diverge
Lifted into what seems to be
A tunnel of colourful multiple Vs
Pleasant fate when identity dissipates
No pain, no pressures, no claims
Just white space
Until pulled back into this place
To live a life again

A rickety iron bridge
worn out by time,
roofless, look up
to an intriguing sky.

My spirit leaped out,
a meteor shower, along
with the blue moon and stars;
it looked down at me.

Epiphany, not a dead one
ferns sprout from cracked walls –
mute spectators to life.

The raintree standing on the right
homeless, dipping its leaves
into the stream,
meanders through me,
the moss-covered bridge –
transient. It was my place, ours,
yours and mine. Homeless.

Breath visible
Ice sculpture ephemeral
Fear Inevitable
Beauty Immeasurable

Flower once loved
Uprooted
Beauty no more
Limp body
Beauty she was
Left there to die
All because she had wilted

Mayflies
by Michael R. Burch

These standing stones have stood the test of time
but who are you
                             and what are you
                                                             and why?
As brief as mist, as transient, as pale ...
Inconsequential mayfly!

Perhaps the thought of love inspired hope?
Do midges love? Do stars bend down to see?
Do gods commend the kindnesses of ants
to aphids? Does one eel impress the sea?

Are mayflies missed by mountains? Do the stars
regret the glowworm’s stellar mimicry
the day it dies? Does not the world go on
as if it’s no great matter, not to be?

Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose.
And yet somehow you’re everything to me.

Originally published by Clementine Unbound. Keywords/Tags: mayfly, mayflies, time, mist, transient, transience, pale, inconsequential, stars, sea, everything, A. E. Housman quote