What did the grouse hear as the Father talked to his Son — what did it hear in the reassuring speech, practiced over a glass of rye, in the repetition of “I will always love you”? Walking among the thin ground cover, random and haphazard, the mottled markings passed on from grouse to grouse as…
School-Day Mornings
6:30 — Mom wakes me — I love Mommy and Mommy loves Me 6:31 — Pull the covers over my head and wait for her to remind me at 6:35 6:35 — Reminder 6:36 — Lights are turned on and curtains flung open — sun unfairly attacks my head 6:36 — Pillow over head for…
A Wish for a Time
I wish for a sunkiss to lay in a beam upon the thick pile of a green shag carpet catch the tail of my cat who sweeps it into my face bends an ear into mine then lays in a beam purring up my lips. I wish for a fire’s dance to lay in its…
A Child’s Lament
Oh god — it’s not fair, you rip the seam and rend my dream oh brother — it’s not fair the creaking door, the footsteps upon the floor oh mother — it’s not fair your tender voice that breaks the silent noise oh father — it’s not fair, the smells you make, that homemade pancake…
you remember when
I awoke … Asleep with a weight upon my upper lip and a hush upon my ear. My unconscious mind was struggling with a conscious world of pain the torments and disappointments of my memories tearing at my being. A mother who wept when I was born a father away much of the time and…
… a Moment
I ski upon the memory of a path upon the snow fallen from the twinkling of stars long ago. I move along the path made glacial and hard by the many boots of men following me. I ascend a terrain which undulates noticeably up when early in my trek it was all downhill. I collect…
Ekadent
Ekadent the child in her unwinds the wool of words solitaire hummingbirds hover as she plays upon a butterfly table history bookworm devours the unbroken spines of libraries cookies a girl-guide hand reaches into depression glass friendship pilgrims ring brass bells through the Oregon grape trumpets big band jazz carpets lazy story-telling afternoons grammar disciplines…
Leftovers
Fortune was the recipe — or fate — it depended what was undercover in the fridge leftover from the week past. Tupperware containers half-filled last with remnants of meals: a roast of Dad’s beef sad butter crusted beans some old tomato dyed cold spaghetti some gravy for sauce. Tossed together my Mother of invention added…
Redemption
In you there is a Future for all Hope because love brings a confidence That want is enough for possible To see is enough to imagine. In you there is a Spirit that grows Born of light, it shines an innocence Spreads its wings over heavy shadows Chases the complex from simple love. In you…
Tails of Ice
Entranced by the colours of these warm ‘cattails’ … or ‘bull-rushes’ as we called them when I grew up. I still remember vividly the effect my childish hoarding of the fall rushes in my father’s shed had one warm day in spring when they all burst back to life and filled the shed and all…