Procrastination

Rain is falling

branches ready to snap

leaves blow everywhere

he waits to go rake

leaves pile higher

at least clear a path so I won’t fall down

little at a time will get the job done

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

Rain is falling

look the sun just came out

grab your rake and go

it might not last long

glistening on tree

how can you take a nap at times like this

it could be the last time we see this sun

________________

dVerse prompt on a pet peeve— like when my husband doesn’t help raking leaves 🍁 and I sit writing this

Zombies

Night of the Living Dead was a scary movie I saw when I was a teenager. It was even scarier driving past a cemetery on my way home that night. The plot line resembles Walking Dead— cannibalistic zombies walking around attacking and eating people. Walking Dead is in the eleventh and final season of guts flying and spilt brains and many ways to slow down, trap, and kill a zombie, not to mention the unraveling of society and its attempt at restructuring.

taking from the past

brings unimagined seasons

fuels a greater fear

____________________

dVerse prompt on a fear that was experienced— my experience with zombies has only been in movies

Many Roses

Set roots in a proper manner

find more fertilizer to pamper

my rosebush

*****

Tallest of all rhododendron

species of rhodie maximum

is rosebay

*****

First of the garden blooms in spring

small yet delightfully pretty

many primrose

*****

Bringing it into the kitchen

flavors food in many dishes

this rosemary

*****

A bloom that lasts only one day

be quick or you won’t have time to

smell rockrose

________________

dVerse prompt to write Compound Word Verse

Haiku to the Hunter’s Moon

staccato owl

hunter’s moon brightens the night

coyote yelping

Lost

Amber Alert

wakes me from a deep sleep.

An old man has gone

missing in his 2002 Honda sedan.

It is what his family always feared—

that he drove away

and would never be found.

_________________

dVerse prompt on lost and found. That and being sleep interrupted by an amber alert. This poem makes me think of how dementia drives the brain— driving away and never being found.

Ash Grove

My great grandfather

built his home in Southern Iowa

out back was a grove of ash trees

the people called the town Ash Grove

now gone from the map

forgotten place

I can still see the changing color

of leaves falling to the ground

_________________

dVerse quadrille prompt on the word ash

Asking

“What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?”

(Richard always asked questions. Even when he was giving an answer, he would speak the answer in the form of a question. Sometimes that made life miserable and misunderstood. Other times it brought clarity and enlightenment.)

“Was it rhubarb?”

_________________

dVerse prompt using the line from The Wasteland by T S Eliot

More Than I Know

I

Woke this morning

cloudy with chance of rain

brown of death hanging

from trees

waiting to fall

II

Inside where it is warm

oven holds greater heat

melts the butter

sugar and flour and eggs

holds the cookie together

III

A child pets the dog

soft fur under her hand

rising and falling with breath

curious to greet

this nonhuman being

IV

Preparing for winter

I mend the armscye

thread moves through fabric

brings together these parts

making it whole again

V

There is much more to life

than what I know—

enter from the inside out

breathe deeper

rejoice

_________________

dVerse prompt on cadralor— five part poem each part can stand alone. Parts seemingly unrelated. Fifth part brings wholeness.

Gun

Is it for protection

or aggression

is happiness a warm gun

its cold barrow resting on cheek

held against my lips

finger trembling on trigger

if you try to disarm me

accidentally shoot me

who would believe you

after covering my body

with stones

__________________

dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word stone— and my obsession with Gabby Petito homicide

Owl at the Pond

Owl at the pond

big as my small dog

puffs out feathers

wets face

always looking around

It sees me in kitchen

watching as it goes

deeper into the water

shaking feathers

tipping

flipping

water on its back

breast deep now

looking around

repeats face wash again

and again

wings spread

then gone