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Texting with my daughter
Reminiscing
Photography
Serving
Oh to be able to taste again
sweet tapas of Malaga
restaurants flung wide open
olives served which we never ordered
but still had to pay for
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dVerse prompt on food. One too many servings of covid right now.
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
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dVerse prompt on a pet peeve— like when my husband doesn’t help raking leaves 🍁 and I sit writing this
A Place in the Sun
Houses for sale in the Algarve
follow the cobblestone to the yellow one
imagine myself speaking Portuguese
eu escrevo em poesia
nadar no Mediterrâneo
cultivar vegetais
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dVerse prompt concerning an imagined house — I’ll take one in the Algarve of Portugal. Translation:
I write in poetry/ swim in the Mediterranean/grow vegetables
My Bread is Rising
My bread is rising
long loaves placed on a pan
now side by side
twice the size
and still growing
a hot oven is waiting
for the right time
to bake it crisp
yet soft and chewy
serve it warm
with Greek olive oil
Palinode
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dVerse prompt to write a palinode
Devils Lake
Dakotas spoke it as mni wak’an
mni (water)
wak’an (pure source or sacred)
there was no concept of devil
til white man saw it as bad spirit
water that was undrinkable
created mirages like spirits
over the waters
marked it on the map
Devils Lake
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Traveling in North Dakota, I camped at this lake.
My Dog and I
It is bath time for the dog
he looks at me
like he knows the word bath
really it’s a shower
but I call it bath
he lets me take him in my arms
and placed in the tub
I spray him with water
rub him vigorously with suds
between the toes (especially between his toes)
and all over
I still remember a time when someone
showered me
dried my skin
and put ringlets in my hair
Burial
Although I am gone I see you there
so nice how you gathered flowers while I
(below in my coffin)
smiled the mortician’s smile
and watched as each of you
placed a rose upon the lid
before I was lowered into the earth
Now I would rather be placed
in a tree pod
my decomposition
feeding a fig tree
(remember the one
on the south side of the house)
you can eat my figs
There is sorrow in that
I would have to die twice
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NaPoWriMo Day 8 — writing from the POV of a dead person. Photo of an ancient burial urn taken at Muséo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi in Syracuse, Sicily
Return
Will men understand the mysterious language of those tears? Pope Pius XII October 17, 1954
I went there
Basilica Santuario Madonna Delle Lacrime
Siracusa, Sicily
Weeping Madonna
housed in the architecture of a tear
I took a photo there
ignorant of its meaning
until now
when asked to fill a space with poetry
and now
I want to know the meaning of those tears
Does she weep for His suffering
or for the plight of a humanity
trying to return to God?
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NaPoWriMo Day 4 prompt. I took my own photo of the Basilica Santuario Madonna Delle Lacrime in October 2019, not knowing that it was home of the weeping Madonna.
wordshophop 