Stay tuned for more on that story,
says the radio newscaster.
Sip your cappuccino,
examine How They Live
from the comfort of your commute.
Congratulate yourself
for being so sensitive
for noting their Existence
on this spinning planet.
Author Archives: Puff Of Smoke Poems
What Life IS Like For Some Of Them
No Contest
Which will blossom first,
clutch of daffodils in their brown pitcher
or you?
Together, whispers that voice
outside the windows
Lift your heads and blossom
to This World
Conversational Nature
Trees whisper flying dreams
to the blackbird against the
blue sky, the still-furled branches
folded wings waiting for a sign
Listen for the trees to
breathe out, Bloom.
Falling Into Patterns
This life we wove as I raised you
fine wool of moments
into this pattern of what is
pattern of comfort knotted
to threads that trap us
hold us till we repeat
all our old mistakes
no matter how weary
the stitches are familiar
Plans For The Future
Here, a quickly written poem based on a list prompt from We Write Poems— a site I just discovered and look forward to exploring soon. Try it yourself!
When you hear those tangled blue dreams of knowing, begin—
First, turn to vapor all the words tagged Nightmare by your soul:
Carapace, chrysalis, cocoon all spiral away into the dark
With all the winged truths they held. Not these.
Next, Soul, nurture the witch in the cathedral of your center
Drop into your inky cauldron the striped filaments
Of all those years of rain and roots and nurturing.
As sunlight stripes the stone floor, turn to those watchers
Stoic demons, blooming angels and honeysuckled geishas
In gowns fragile as fortunes.
Together, marvel at the brimming cauldron
How the rising smoke of a million votives
Twists with seafoam air from a thousand long-stemmed hookahs
Into the invisible future you built,
cradled in its mystery, opaque eggshell of time.
Dive Shop
Not masks or suits
fins or nets
Go naked, with your bare hands.
Dive
again
for words
just out of reach
who bury themselves
in sharp blooms of cutting coral
or hide in deep caves, silent
subterranean mansions
or those words over there,
Taunt and Tantalize
Worry and Wonder
See how they flit
between shadow and seaweed
Patterned, their very skin
a disguise
Iridescent scent
Elusive shine
House Party
Plenty of champagne
and company
and canapes
Glittering gowns
wait in wardrobes
hang on hangers
Shaped for Later.
First, there are the gardens
hills beyond
beds to nap in
notebooks to write in
while the jazz band on the veranda
warms up for the night ahead
when nobody is allowed to be dull
but must continue till they sparkle.
The Rid Yourself Of Excess Garage Sale
to include
the garage itself, with all its contents
plus
twenty-three coffee cups, nobody’s favorites
breadmaker, juicer, waffle iron, wok
all those clothes for someday
and in the corner, tattered cardboard box
of dust and magazines you’ll never read
years and years of conflicting messages
Real Simple and More
Start your own magazine, composed
entirely of air, title it: Enough, Already.
Fairy Lights
Strung along our walls
thumb-tacked and draped
close to the ceiling
early, late, every day
I held my breath
plugged in this antidote to winter dark
house rainbowed at every window,
joy for five dollars a string.
One by one, the strands
go dark, something hidden in them
breaks. I throw the dead
in the kitchen trash, though they deserve
A proper burial
for all the light
they gave, until they had
no more to give.
Down to one room now,
this room,
still glowing
Green, yellow, pink, red, blue.
Friday’s Trick
you conjured
Spring for
one day,
conspiration
of blue sky local
crows last year’s berries
on the mountain ash.
