Autumn expires In its own fires
simmering the fallen with flaring tints.
Leaves crepitate and crackle
skived to crisp skins.
Hedgerows turn to vacant
crypts, twigs to wooden teeth.
Arboreal embers swirl
between barelegged winds.
The groundhogs have forsaken
dawns scant larders
they seek deeper shelters
where moss-beds lay unseared
by smoldering remnants.
Halloween will be late this year,
the dead are still dying.
Categories:
skived, poetry,
Form: Free verse
We are marked,
a fervid sun brands,
icy winds score skin deep
marks at least as obvious as Cain's.
Every decade weathers us,
our leather skived; oils desiccated into
wrinkled smiles
but each flaw has its roots,
and each root an anchor for a climb taken.
An old crone in a park, anywhere;
her eyes are deep set
but the blue within them is clear.
Her flesh hangs on crooked bones,
yet she is a vision there among the young,
a message for all those who have overcome.
Her grace is the grace of the withered tree
that perseveres among the tall of the forest,
such a presence declares the defiant youth
of the undefeated.
We are marked by our own rugged paths;
such are both signs of arrival and survival.
Each aged portrait a declaration
that Cain is slain once more
by a life well lived again.
Categories:
skived, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Scales hardened over her skin
a condition called ichthyosis vulgaris
ik-thee-O-sis vul-Ga-ris
fish disease
(the ‘vulgar’ means ordinary
but at its worst
it is far from common).
She bled where the plaques chipped and cracked,
she leaked oils, but could not sweat enough.
She existed on her own sunbaked beach
gasping for breath.
She was a salmon fisher once
before she was encased in Piscean plates.
(The root of the word salmon
is ‘salvo’ meaning, to ‘leap’),
and indeed
for years she had tried to jump out of her skin.
One night
an easterly wind
brought a silver-eyed fisherman
to her breach.
In the swaying dark
he laid her down.
She suffered him to scrape
the arid scabs from her
with his skinning blade, hooked like a gaff.
He was exquisitely skilled,
gentle even.
Slowly he skived her sheath,
left her
glowing and wet,
beautiful and supple
on a heap of husks.
There beside the pitching surf
they made love.
Later,
he watched
as she swam away.
(The ichthys fish symbol
is older than history,
sea goddesses
claim it
as a symbol
of sexuality and rebirth).
Categories:
skived, poverty,
Form: Blank verse
Down to the Earth she reside
Although many times she gyved
But from all the negativity she survived
For mental peace many times she skived
But about all her weaknesses she shrived
Yes in this fake world she thrived!
Categories:
skived, appreciation, confidence, courage, deep,
Form: ABC