One Word: without

without rain
I am dry and cracked
future mud
ever waiting racked
with need for something
I can’t even name
to tame the wild flame
of wishful thinking
sinking to the bottom of
the well of all I ever wanted
haunted by the ghosts
of many lives long
past the corner of
the street I used to walk
the ghosts could talk to
you but won’t they’re
mine and mine alone
atone for sins not understood
but do we even
if we could would we
make the change
arrange our lives just
so adjustment made
a sacrifice
for rain

One Word: Matching
I’ve been to the local coffee
mecca lattes and frappes soy
bible studies and whispered
small town dreams and
schemes whipped cream
but sugar free light
bible belted covered sin
sipped through
watching eyes in
pretty words with bite

supermarket checkout
gossip rags surreptitiously read
by ladies in Reefs with
Oakleys pushed back on heads
of frosted hair just so
politely speak then slide
the card and hurry to the
other side matching
hummer waiting grating
on the nerves

big fish in little ponds
wave hands and wands
but don’t forget the
past is past and
worries fade and wade
into the deeper water
wait an hour after
supper houses curtained
watching eyes the dishes
washed away the sins
of day after day

tv shadows letterman
top ten answers to
your billion dollar question
assuage the guilt the quilt
will cover all the
bills come due and
you can’t lay the money down
you already paid and paid
and don’t know why
the kiss goodnight
the sleep
the lie

One single Impression: Icarus  One Word: Hawk

Icarus was right.
to try for height
Sun warmed wax dripped
unnoticed, feathers ripped
dumped in the sea
price to be free
birds to fishes
all from wishes
gravity kissed
but who could resist

if wings were mine
I would fly that high
the cool breeze caressing
soft clouds solid blessing
I would reach out to take
scoop up a finger full of cloud
like frosting on cake
pop it in my mouth
ice cream cold
cotton candy spun sugar
melted can’t hold

I would dive with hawks
startled at seeing me
and they would wheel off
disapproval squawks
I would glide
graceful as those birds
gently slide
weightless on currents
unseen in the light
Icarus was right

One Word: Meaning

the first stanza completed in the requisite minute. The rest?  Well…

the words the look the sound
the meaning can be found in
many places and ways of hearing
and seeing and your heart knows what it
knows but is it the meaning

the where we’re from and where we go
the who and when of all
the more and less than what is really
truly spun out of the thought
we say what we mean but
mean what we say or what
you hear and read take all within

my words transform
to your words your alchemy will
spell the magic of the is and was
and will become and you will write
and I will write and ripples flow
and we the stone that’s thrown
touch words across the miles

the stories of our words
of poem and tale and form
take pieces of the writer
dreamer poet soul of
all the writers poets
tellers of stories and fill
an ocean of emotion and history

a mystery to me and all
the tenuous connections of
humanities’ inventions
chronicled here and there and
now again go out
come back and never left
not bereft but more added
piled high to night
the fire burns and never
ever goes out

One Word: Stand

One Single Impression: Reign

honeysuckle wind
tastes like rain
the birds all puffed up again
the reign the weather
she is queen around here
spring is her season and she
don’t mess around her dress
is green she can flirt
you will hail her as
she twists and whistles right
by the dark clouds
the wall clouds the how’d
you hide in the cellar
and she raise the roof when
she wants you just tell her
do her thing hold
on and hope you are there
come morning
some prayer that goes up
so you won’t have to
leaves all inside out
spouts of water big
fat raindrops you know the kind
that sound like bacon frying
children crying
but the sun comes flying
and drying all the puddles
and the muddles where the
huddles of all the people
say amen
we got flowers and showers
and towers can’t stand against her
don’t you try she will be
sweet again and the singing
will commence as feathered
in the sun weathered by the storm
dawn gives us a come hither look
and see she is all around blue
and green and golden
fruit and blossom breeze
gardenia tucked behind her ear
smelling sweeter squeeze all
the juice and spit out the seeds
she grows them up again
with honeysuckle wind