Daylights Knocking
must be as Godly
a feeling
to be Good
at what one does
not
metering out in
the mendacity
of mediocrity
with the toll
of late fees
that which,
with every blunder
come due
(I don't mean
like death...
but you know
...like taxes)
every act done well
is as an hour
saved
...I know
having seen
many a cigarette
stamped out...
that these ashes
are but a coarser
form of dust
the kind formed
where meditation
met its match
and lost...
11.03.2024
Daylight… saved, spent, wasted? challenge @Mariah
Not Out of the Woods
In the wilderness
every animal
says
Wiedersehen
into sleep
pulling
caliginous twig
shadows wave
see you again
later, my friends
separation blue
on the horizon
Baiji in dreamscape
shhh... make
believers of us, kin
in the signs shedding
amidst the leaves
long staring swells
beneath, watching
as seeds and spores
float downwind
while we remain
rooted in
10.29.2024
Wiedersehen challenge @CKMunsell
Turning in Darkness
All the World
is stranger
to me
in bed
with temperature
as the Earth turns
molten
on its axis
I on mine
and gravity of the situation
stands reason on its head
all of us at some point
upside down
my night clock
meter rises
and I reload
for harvesttime
the ground's lit
up in prowl
for a Hunter like I
in shadow rifling
I gather my skin
at town center
it will make
fine
return
of pellets...
pelt for pelts
for pell...
Thus satisfied
I settle to sleep
at the crack of day light
10.25.2024
The Hunter's Moon challenge @CKMunsell
Fidget Spinning for Beginners
Doing nothing
is the Art hahaha!
to know not waste
given moment's notice
hold it all four corners
for how it owns us
east south north west
a cat curling self
around the leg
imperceptible
scent leaving
in darkness beginning
a tiny movement
a beating
10.22.2024
Cackle challenge @Last
Crazies Raising Crazies
They called him Mother Spoopy. It was derisive at first.
It wasn't on account of how he dressed, though the ambiguity of the oversized bags, aprons, and the unkempt hair that covered body and face, contributed to the effect. All of this had grayed over the years as well, along with the porch he sat on, dragging heavily on a perpetually half cigar. We could smell it down the at the corner, sweet cherrywood, and knew he'd be out, and always nursing some wounded bat.
If it wasn't a bat, it was a pygmy owl, or an ermine weasel, white as death and he would say to us: "Lor' knows if she'll make it thru' though, devil be damned we're goin' to try maties!" and we weren't ever to sure who was "we" and which side anybody stood on: us, or him, or God, or Lucifer, for that matter, any living creature.
What we saw was tubes, and sometimes white translucent stuff, and sometimes a thing looking a lot like blood. What we could figure for sure was, was it going in or going out? And why not just take it to the vet?
Bobbie Sue would snicker and say, "Why, he is a Vet!" and giggle. We thought that must be the effect of his peg leg on her imagination, cuz we all knew he'd descended from pirates. He routinely said in passing: "Been to Hell and back, boys! to Hell with it all!" waving his hands like he saw the parting of the red sea or something, his fingers stained with substances we'd never seen. Sometimes orangish red, sometimes green.
Our folks though they tried to steer us clear. Something between, "Don't go meddling," and "Doing the Angel's work!" out in the fresh air. We found in time respectable people would bring him their pets sometimes, like when the Mayor's terrier was struck in hit and run, and so badly mangled. There were a few eyebrows over her choice of "witch doctor" over clinic. But when Bartlet turned a corner, the local paper declared Mother Spoopy a healer, and said we had so much to learn from Nature and the compassion of man, dedication, love, patience and separation from unwieldly machinery.
We started thinking differently about war, and science, and magic. Life.
10.15.2024
Crazies Raising Crazies challenge @AJAY9979
Love is a Patchwork of Everyone
if it's true
that we ought love
everyone then,
each of us should
comprise an odd 8 billion
quilted pieces, growing,
though our flesh appears
relatively smooth, even if
contiguous to each other
mentally fragmented a bit
in calico and seersucker
...but love is a-proportional
and we've 330 billion cells
replaced daily
in which it's hidden
we love some more
we love some less
we toss some out
every seven days
some we try to keep
as memories like bones
for years...
we want to say,
beating the chest, gently
Love is immaterial, forever
just depends on the material
09.30.2024
"You are a patchwork of everyone you've ever loved" challenge @AJAY9979