Mermaid on the Beach

Soft

my scales

glisten in the sun

my skin

my breath

held long

like my hair

flowing

seaward

with

pearls of foam

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dVerse prompt on mermaids

At the Checkout Stand

I masked up and went to the grocery store.  It had been three months of home delivery.  Now I was on my own.  I went early and social distanced most of the time.

There was lots of produce and salad dressings.   Flour,  not so much.  Yeast, no way, but still hopeful.  There was bleach and a few hand soaps.  Alcohol on the bottom shelf, way in the back.  You had to bend over to see it.  Plenty of eggs and cheese and milk.  A few boxes left with Aunt Jemima still pictured with perfect pancakes.

The checkout clerk wore a mask and asked me if I had found everything I needed.  I hesitated; she waited for the answer.  “Do you think we will ever have yeast again?”          I asked through my mask.  She thought I said, “Do you think we will ever have peace again?” She replied and finished with “only if people will do the right thing.”

trust the food supply

find more even in a siege

in summer we feast

 

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dVerse haibun prompt on a shining moment

 

 

Homicide

How did George Floyd kill Aunt Jemima after he was already dead?

Aunt Jemima served delicious pancakes

RIP George

RIP Quaker Oats Aunt Jemima

Here comes Uncle Ben

with a pot of fluffy rice

soon to be snuffed out

another white on black

homicide

——————

Birds of Prey

SHOCKING to see the cardinal eat a gecko

thick beak designed to crack seeds & nuts

one would expect it from a blue jay

not this red bird with its sweet song

now a gecko hangs from songbird beak

lifeless & being shaken

its head consumed then tail

legs gnawed away

it looks like a small fish

yet too big for the throat

of such a now ravenous bird

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I looked out the window today and saw this cardinal with a gecko. Unexpected metaphor to the current events.