An Indian summer
decamps, marches South
like a defeated army.
Coats are pulled out of closets,
cars winterized.
Wizards in long white robes
hunt the moans of castaway witches.
Autumn memories lure cats away,
but they soon return to the fireplace,
to stretch-out the longer hours.
Babies are coddled closer,
the sky goes blank,
amnesia deleting its colors.
There are omens born on chill winds,
sparrows go mute
in the frosty hedgerows.
November takes off its high-hat
revealing a bald dome,
when you go out alone,
you feel its gelid marrow
hitchhiking its way
through creaking bones.
A red sunset kindles icicle’s
into bright dripping scalpels.
Light decamps and flares,
impressions drift.
Shadows mime shadows.
The flicker of melting flames.
A hanging man;
his silhouette flex’s,
head lolling, arms stretching
in the long reach of evening.
Death twists
flames smolder then set.
Heels keep turning.
A tree sleeps.
COMING TO TERM IN THE USA 2022 Laraine Kentridge Lasdon
who are we to talk of women’s rights
or the travesties of cultures of bans
when our Supreme court becomes
a pawn of pandering politics
and we are no better than
them
how many two year olds
must be beaten
left in closets to die
with no Hail Mary’s
to mark their death
twenty year old mother
nineteen year old boyfriend
sit in jail for the rest of their lives
foster children
sleep in offices, under tables
unwanted
and
and
with wanton abandon
the powerful use
every tool they have
to silence sober practitioners
of abortion and education
forcing birth and poverty
on young women pregnant
rape, incest, or ignorant
about their own body
father-father, boyfriend-father
unaware, or not required to care
(as my father-father willfully
controlled me the injustice stings)
wrapped in judicial cloak of cynicism
the Court decamps
intoning platitudes
and buries Roe vs Wade
there is nowhere to turn
the baby is still born
A blood red sunset kindles icicle’s
into dripping scalpels.
As the light decamps and flares,
flickering impressions drift.
Shadows mime shadows.
There is a shape, a hanging man
imprinted on a tree trunk.
The silhouette flex’s,
head lolling, arms stretching
in the long reach of evening.
Ice crystals flame
only to die
under the heels of darkness.
I shudder,
as my noose twists in a night wind.
From the morning twilight,
the sun rises too highlight,
a beginning of earthly birthright,
and set about the day,
The light, shining firsthand,
shimmers across the land,
as night feels its strife,
light's behemence to life.
The morning dew,
who once condensed,
decamps into air,
as incalescense prospers.
A light breeze jostles,
a branch in season dormant,
life passionately waiting,
this cold season's debarment.
kick boxing in flight - lessed yellow-legs bicker
Inspired by Georges Decamps-Shell Life comp
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/photo.do?
photo=2282&category=2&group=1
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