Young mango plant
Young growing seed
Push from the tumbling mess of weed
And gain the sunshine, gain the air-
Gain the microbe -but beware!
There lurks one special microbe here
Awaiting cuts and scrapes
He enters wounds and then insists
The host cell replicate
By conjugating with a plant,
He crosses all the lines
And forces all your cells to make
The food of his design
You’ll replicate incessantly
And form a barky ball
Abnormal growth for all to see
From one microbe so small!
Your kingdom is his kingdom,
Though he never was invited
Genome contaminated
When he thinks he is a virus
Beware this little microbe
Who seems to’ve lost his senses
Keep growing, but when cut
Prepare to booster your defenses
Categories:
barky, science, sick,
Form: Light Verse
The night air,
waters (somewhere) burble.
A deer in the dark
hoof-crunches
yesterday’s now 12 degree snow.
A mouse moves. In sudden urgency.
Unseen all.
Unnoticed, none.
The moon is lost in wane,
in fog, in the coldest hour.
I balance a bundle of barky splits
in the fold of my arm. Indentations.
Scratches.
The stove awaits. The kettle, too.
Nearly midnight.
Poetry soon. Beneath the maple
silhouetted only by my memory of
the corner of Sky shared in
differing times by first the sun
and then the moon or first the moon
and then the sun.
Taiwanese whole-leaf, tightly bound.
Soon to unfurl in the new heat.
Some rinds to plop in, too.
The necessaries will wait,
tonight.
The tea, the fire, the words
won’t wait,
tonight.
They are the Actual Necessary.
I come to them in dark.
To drink of their light.
They call to me in dark.
To offer me their light.
Categories:
barky, fire, philosophy, poetry, poets,
Form: Free verse
I SAW THE TREES LAUGHING
I saw the trees laughing at the wind
as it passed by.
They were whispering jokes to each other,
I’m almost sure.
Their arms started flailing as the jolly rumble
began in the trunk;
A timber tickle sent through a barky throat
that shivered
Leading to the double-over, barrel-rolling
laughter.
Tell me you’ve heard the creaking bellow
in your ears, too,
And these are not more wild thoughts leaking
from mad places.
Tell me you’ve seen their frozen faces,
the many races,
The Standing People of older nations
alive but in peril.
Laugh now, before the chainsaw banter
and ‘Timber!’ throes.
Makes me wonder how they can laugh
at all.
Categories:
barky, allegory, nature,
Form: Blank verse
Golden blood, strong and pure,
Seeping from fellow wooden hearts.
Emerald blades, tall and humble,
Beaded with silvery tears.
Weathered scarlet hoods, sorrowed and low,
Concealing unseen beauty.
For centuries it stands,
Its arms stretched wide,
For it cannot run, nor can it hide.
It sits to watch the seasons pass,
To witness life and death, alas.
Mother to the forest,
And all that roams.
Internal emotion blazes from the soul,
Though from within it is contained,
Behind those barky ribs.
Pity and shame,
Can only be felt,
For this silenced sage.
Seemingly immortality is possessed,
Though even this almighty will cease.
Categories:
barky, nature,
Form: Couplet
At the risk of being called “rabble-rouser,”
I think poor old Barky Von Schnauzer,
should practice his aim,
his master to maim,
in the back end of his very best trousers!
My hero I would call dear old Barky,
if he could just muster the stealth of a sharky,
and covertly steer,
right straight for the rear,
of that great big old bag of malarkey!
I think I should send Barky a big four leaf clover,
so his bad luck would finally be over,
he could retire his fame,
move away, change his name,
to Bowser maybe Lassie or Rover!
Obviously I have been driven completely insane by that stupid t.v. commercial!
Happy St. Paddy's Day!
Categories:
barky, angst, animals, funny, pets,
Form: Limerick