November 20, 2024

Dance Hailu: Act IX (Fishing Edition)

Scene 1


Sailing out to sea
Sunrise lights the horizon
Restless fishermen


Scene 2


Hooks baited with crab
Dropping deep into the brine
Waiting for the bite


Scene 3


A jolt on the line
Excitation of the catch
Reeling in a fluke




November 16, 2024

November 13, 2024

A Quiet Bloom


U
N
D
E
R

Ink-streaked skies
The city hums in hushed rhythms
Rain softening the edges
Of a world that turns away

She moves
Through the quiet
Steps slowed by the damp
A shopping cart creaking beside her—
Vessel of fragments
Blankets that shield from the cold
Tins wrapped tight in old newspaper
Scraps of a life
Once lived by someone else

Her tent waits by the bridge
Patched with hope
Threadbare with fatigue

She turns down an alley
Behind the florist’s shop
Where refuse sprawls
Around overstuffed garbage cans
Among the littered remnants of discarded days
She spies it—

A rose

Petals wilted
Edges brown
But still, in the heart
Of the bloom

There is red

It clings—
To its color
Its scent
Its story

She reaches out
Fingers rough and trembling
Lifting the flower from the trash
Careful, as though it might break
Under the weight of the world
A flower tossed aside
Forgotten

She cradles it close
As if to say, I see you
I know what it is to be left behind
She tucks it into her cart
Nestles it among her treasures
Its modest beauty sparking a flame
Deep in the hollow of her chest

And as she walks back
Toward her tent beneath the bridge
The evening softens around her
And the rose reminds her—
Even in this world's darkest corners
Life refuses to fade

And she, too
Will keep blooming





November 6, 2024

Majuscule Characters Successive


All along the cobbled bridge
Between the grouted stones
Captured to belie the time
Dust from dreamless bones
Earth and sand, air and wind
Flames on lonely mountain
Ghostly ash, the only gift
Hopes cast in a fountain

Ivy climbs the shaded wall
Just to touch the sun
Knotted into tiny cracks
Lyric yarns unspun
Mingled in the cloying green
No trace of guile finds
Open to the changing breeze
Peace and hope unbinds

Quiddity brings reverie
Respite comes in faith
Silence comes in solitude
Truth, it comes in grace
Upward to the shelter trees
Vie the new-born shoots
Wooden to the corpus come
Xyloid to their roots

Years have yet to find me
Zephyr, please remind me




October 31, 2024

Goblin Goodies


October
Neighborhood amble
Crunch of dry, brown leaves
Accompanies the clack
Of my footfalls

On nearby lawn
I espy a duo of hags
Engrossed in toil and trouble
Black hats, barbed warts
Broomsticks, a bubbling cauldron
Overseen by an emerald-eyed, ebony cat

From adjacent patio
Pale, shrouded figure beckons me
Toothy Bram-Stoker grin
Eager to share his thirst for mock blood
And a stash of lollipops

In a flowerbed
Gargantuan octoped
Stands centered and steady
On sprawling circular patterns
Of viscous webs
The spidery sentinel
To a realm
Of pumpkins, gourds
Haystacks and chrysanthemums

Down the road
A klatsch of skeletons
Dances to a xylophonic jig
While a tall, lumbering creature
Approaches me
From across the street
To the sound of J. S Bach's
“Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”
Patchwork green flesh
Bejeweled
With glistening neck bolts

And...

Oh my goodness!
It's the Invisible Man!
(Although, I don't know how I know this
I can't actually see him)

This graveyard playground
Of haunted houses, headstones
Horror highlights and hokum
Offers me one reward

Sweetest trick of all

A pillowcase

B
U
L
G
I
N
G

With treats




October 24, 2024

At the Graveyard Gates


Eerie pall at eventide
Landscape steeped in sepulchral hues
Weathered stones in a lonely graveyard
Mausoleums, crumbling with time
Marble statues stand like silent guards
Sentinels of death, cloaked in moss

I tread the gravel path alone
A solitary figure amidst the gloom
My footfalls echo through the still air
Somber notes in twilight’s fading light
The moon, a pale specter
Veiled by wisps of cloud
Casts its melancholic glow

Then, without warning—
A subtle shift disturbs the air
A whisper of movement, unseen
But felt in the marrow of my bones
Shivers crawl along my spine
A twig snaps—ghostly breath
My heart races, pounding louder
I turn


There she is...


A woman, wraith-like
Obscured in shadow
Her dress tattered
Perfumed by the scent of wilted flowers
Her shoes, time-worn and decayed

She steps forward
Into the pale, silvery dusk
And I see—

She is decapitated!


Gasp


I flee
Heart pounding
Chill rushing through my veins
Each step feels heavier
As if death itself pulls at my heels
I try to extend the fragile distance
Between the living and the dead
But I feel her presence draw closer

Desperation tightens its grip
I race toward the cemetery gates
Her pace doubles mine
A haunting pursuit
Each step, a terrifying harmony

I reach the threshold—
The iron gates
A sanctuary from these haunted grounds
Yet, her chimerical hand reaches out
Grabs me

Enveloped
In her cold embrace
Terror overwhelms me
I wait
For death’s final touch

But—
The fear begins

To ebb...

An unexpected surge—
Of something else

I realize—
I’m not trapped in death’s grip
But cradled


A hug


A silent communion
Between the living and the phantasmal
A brief, poignant understanding
Of our shared solitude
A fleeting moment
Of compassion

Tears trickle down
Softly, quietly
For all the lost souls
Wandering this earth
Homeless
Unseen

With one final caress
She releases me
I watch her form
For one more moment
As she dissolves
Into stardust

Outside the gates
A strange warmth grows within
Tinged with sadness
For a brief encounter
Witnessed only by the resting dead

And for a love
I never thought I'd feel—
For a woman


With no head





October 22, 2024

Fall Classic: Yankees vs. Dodgers (Triolet)


A battle fierce beneath October's skies
The Yankees face the Dodgers on the field
With every swing, the crowd erupts in cries
A battle fierce beneath October's skies
Where heroes rise and dreams are realized
The tension builds as neither team will yield
A battle fierce beneath October's skies
The Yankees face the Dodgers on the field







October 20, 2024

Veiled In Verse: A Poetic Masquerade




























               Adorned in masks, poets gather in thrall
               Veiled figures read at the masquerade ball
               Alliterations flutter like wings in flight
               Narratives weave through the shadows of night
               Timeless sonnets rise, grand words on display

               Ghosts of old writers, their echoes, they stay
               Ambrosial notes fill the air with delight
               Riddles revealed by our eyes in the light
               Dreams weave like ivy, their pathways, a pardon
               Ease into seats, let the senses unharden
               Now is the time, the place? Avant Garden!








Avant Garden Poetry Amphitheater
October 19, 2024
~@~





October 16, 2024

By the Porch's Dim Light



Walking through webs in the quiet dawn
Porch concealed in shadowed light
Spider's touch, a chilling bond
My heart leaps fast in sudden fright






October 9, 2024

Hayride to the Snapdragons (Pantoum)


Wagon creaks along dusty trails
Crisp air tinged, autumn perfume
Passing fields, gold leaf prevails
Apples ripe beneath the bloom

Crisp air tinged, autumn perfume
Errant boughs hang low with fruit
Apples ripe beneath the bloom
Overhead skies in azure suit

Errant boughs hang low with fruit
Plucking rubies from the green
Overhead skies in azure suit
October moments, a harvest scene

Plucking rubies from the green
Passing fields, gold leaf prevails
October moments, a harvest scene
Wagon creaks along dusty trails