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Friday, 07 July 2017 11:00

June Poems 2017

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1.

I am a driving animal who sees

Nature going by who stopped on a road

While mommy and daddy geese with goslings

Decided to cross which made me ponder

 

Dignity as I recalled the day I

Gazed at a goose and it looked at me and

I wondered what could it think with such a

Pinched little head and then it hissed which was

 

Discourteous and as the family

Ambled sedately on attending to

Their business unconcerned with impatient

People I granted them admiration —

 

Without a smidgen of embarrassment

The caravan waddled majestically.

 

Sometimes a goose is

Unflappable and

Sometimes a goose is

Irascible — who

Am I to quibble?

 

2.

There’s a fire in the sky today and the

Newly grown leaves are attuned to the fire

And the grass is rising up and as I’m

Turning in a circle there’s the sparkle

 

Of the sun everywhere among the leaves

Turning in a breeze and the blue of the

Sky without a cloud appears as a dome

Lit by a disk so bright I can only

 

See it in glimpses and I imagine

Myself as a leaf buoyant in the wind

Absorbing warm energy but as I

Don’t have ability to turn off my

 

Thinking I can only aspire to

Momentary poise — then go back to work.

 

There are mornings when

the sun is drenching the earth

making everything

appear fresh as if time stopped

and beauty is eternal.

 

3.

I meet my friends in the morning and for

A laugh I’ll pretend to be limping with

My left leg and then I’ll limp with my right

Just to see if they’re paying attention

 

Or I’ll stand behind one of them and lean

One way and then the other and I don’t

Need to use words to enjoy myself — I

Don’t even know I’m smiling — but when I

 

Have to take a photo of me and I’m

manipulating my cell phone trying

To capture the perfect spontaneous

Smile I’m more likely to smirk or even

 

Grimace because suddenly it’s very

Difficult to put on a happy face.

 

I stretch my lips and

narrow my eyes and

raise my cheeks and

make the final effort and

Lift the corners of my mouth.

 

4.

Thunder before dawn is a drum without

Melody and lightning is a crack in

The dark revealing a fracture in the

Sky at odds with the sounding of the rain

 

On the roof that lulls and soothes and I’m not

Awake and not asleep but in a trance

Of childlike wonder absorbing the force

Of the night unpredictable and sharp

 

With clamor and fire as if I’m on the

Edge of battle and doom were in the air

As if violence were imminent and

The covers and the roof aren’t protection

 

As if nothing could shield me from the spears

And the animosity of strangers.

 

There’s not a hint of

my childish fear this morning

as the day is bright

and all that’s left of the night

are puddles reflecting sky.

Read 3954 times Last modified on Thursday, 02 November 2017 12:03
Barry MacDonald

Editor & Publisher of the St. Croix Review.

www.stcroixreview.com
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