Frost, white and silent lay On the curled black asphalt blanket Of shingles on my neighbor’s roof. Below, the family lies sleeping, While the footprints of Of dawn trace The minutes, the seconds, The individual ticks Of a clock keeping pace With the register on my wall, Heat covering Me while mocking The cold, quiet, … Continue reading Footprints
FEATURES
Finding Time
County Road 79, Fieldstones stacked, A bridge over the ditch holding Dark water, a tangled ball of barbed wire, And a Coke can pink from the sun. With the slow sway of seventy years, I cross it to a far off place, In another time. White barn leaning Into the slight breeze from the east, … Continue reading Finding Time
The Button Bush
When the blue arch of September deserved to be called heavens, its high streaks and bulging billows auguring storms in the heat; I climbed down to the strip of land between the levee and the river, where maples lift silver to the wind, and willows often bend to trail their branches in the sun by the water, and homeless … Continue reading The Button Bush
Eagle Marsh
Spits of rain, and willow leaves spin bright bodies down onto mud and dun-colored weed. Knotted, ancient-looking angles of button bush hold up yellow leaves, or few, or none; their sycamore- buttons dangle. A crane, white like heavens, bends its flight to the gracious air, stoops to the water's billows, head tucked like a cockpit, body shaped to … Continue reading Eagle Marsh
Mother, Father
I am planted like seeds in the heavy-lidded brown dirt, moist, farther from the surface than you scratch. Scattered in plots connected: water, worry, sunlight, songs earwormed since the opening of the wound and my coming from it, never letting it scab. Picking constantly—digging. Watching the blood so that it can’t use the magic of … Continue reading Mother, Father
From Her View Only
There is something spoken without words, shared only with the eyes. A vision cast then bid farewell in seconds. Maybe we knew before hello. Goodbye shall always linger within the best-dealt hand. Take it with you for I cannot bare to keep this alone within my thoughts. True beauty speaks without words and lingers within … Continue reading From Her View Only
On the Precipice of Burst Bubbles
Only the occasional squeaking shuffle of the security guard interrupted the airport's sleepy silence. James had purposely sat as far away from the clock as he could once he retrieved his suitcase in order to maintain a stringy grip on his nerves which contrasted starkly with his white knuckled grip on the handle. His phone sat … Continue reading On the Precipice of Burst Bubbles
Tuesday’s Demon
No one in the village was going to help him. A few people peered out at him through gaps in the blinds of their homes, from behind rickety doors, or through peepholes smeared with mud and safehouses with windows like periscopes. Many hid in the corners of their residences instead, curled up like children, unwilling to … Continue reading Tuesday’s Demon
Enough Change for a Cheeseburger
In the dark recesses of the gullet and soul, there were many kinds of hunger that could consume a person and leave them dry heaving and dissected, mouths gaping, souls burning and empty without the flicker of light that promised salvation. There was the hunger of greed, the pangs for more and more, the pernicious prick … Continue reading Enough Change for a Cheeseburger
Do Not Mention Murder
The stillness of the lake has been interrupted and hundreds of animals steal away from its safety. He almost steps on a lizard as he hurriedly runs to the edge of the water. Looking out over the silver surface, he feels a moments peace and then accusing eyes peer at him from the waving cat tails … Continue reading Do Not Mention Murder
LANDLOCKED LYRES 