Dawn’s Rose
Love, like delicate petals of the dawning rose,
Kiss me – wake me from my grey midnight dreaming
Hold me before first light of day transposes
The breath of moonlight’s silver shadows teeming.
Tenderly, as the soft colors of the rose, caress me
Brush away the thorns protecting my trembling heart
Cast off this spiny sheath of tears so I may see
Blossoms open - the ecstasy you impart.
In tender embraces, like rose fire, ignite me
With winsome touch rouse from sleep cherished blooms
Trace your fingertips along my bursting seeds
Rejoicing for dawn’s moments in the rose’ cocoon.
Then like the fragrance lingering in this precious rose
Like the rapture tinged with love’s perfume
Leave your scent in the perfumed afterglow
That slowly fades in amber morning’s bloom.
It’s a green leaf that’s as much of a sprout as green can be.
Almost spiny, maybe just jagged?
Arugula grows.
Oh to be a salad and not be able to cry about it.
That’s what leafy greens are.
It’s all arugula over here.
Causally furled up.
When you open the fridge- they spring out at you.
It’s all arugula.
In a daze.
Oh to be a salad again.
Knock, knock, let me in.
Tell your tale. Please begin.
My name is Barley Methedrine.
Oh no, Barley Methedrine, it's not.
Your name is Sorghum Apricot.
You put too much import in a name.
In the grand scheme, it's all the same.
Tell me what it is you do.
I'm chief superintendent of the zoo.
Oh no, you play drums, and study law,
and your name is Winston Panama.
True, but that was in my other life.
In this one, I play clarinet and fife,
and I must ask you to get into the sack.
A spiny anteater I lack.
That's the first thing you must do.
You'll be a fine specimen for my zoo.
Thousands
of blue-green needles
swaying in the winds cool taunt
Deep hues softly wave to passers bye
Spiny shells of rejuvenation release each seed
Freed from its ties, Mother earth's smile accepts the birth
While the sun blessed the seedling pine then quickly sends
the rain to baptize prosperity, contentment through seasons
and strength from
Father Time
Distant birdsongs
return from frozen fields,
A Carolina Wren jabs and hops
inside a thin ring of pale sunlight.
In the back of a cold season
the wind dresses a scarecrow
with spiny feathers under raven rags.
Ice scabs scratch sod and mulch.
One inaugural leaf
invites a green legend,
It will be weeks before
chill cavities fill chambers
with warm blood,
creaturehood
awakes to death or life.
A tsunami of black ash blankets half a world
Trash toadstool hoodoos, wastelandic pillage
and pollutant mucus ravishes lava villages
Draining is the amalgam mass at the end of the spectrum
Stone environs shock, unnatural landscapes
Polyethylene islands flushing the canvas
Carbon contaminant fumes flair in mid drift air
Virtually no place on Earth is free of the polymer fog
Foaming magma cascades over metallic mushroom roots
Spiny shoots sprout tentacles from rubber trees
Mercury and cadmium toxin leeches' groundwater
Above the quicksand are flying objects that pass as vultures
For a million magarican dollars I was greeted by a masked spacebot
Left on moonlit Luna's Lot are my collection of yin-yang art articles
I fought the good fight, yet still I lost
and you stood in brackish silence
with bitter reward in briny eyes
proffering spiny frowns
shoulders crumbled with aging ache
and brow dimpled with sour failure
I staggered dragging the last crumbs
through the madness of a blue funk
December, daughter of winter, descends with a silence that invades my soul,
Hatred crept slowly and surely into the marrow of my bones, poisoning them,
My breaths release blue beads of carbon dioxide,
Every yellow thought tears at the flesh, a needle lodged in the bleeding heart,
I wished to wear gentleness with grace, but the world covered me
With a thick layer of indifference, a veil of illusory indolence,
My petals of kindness hidden beneath ugly blue sepals,
No one looks beyond them, keeping my solitude intact,
The blue sepals stir waves of sadness in my lonely chest,
Half-smiles and pale feet, signs of deep melancholy,
Months pass and my skin is pierced by thorns, the flesh bleeds,
Dirty blue flows, my spiny armor embraced with pain,
In the world of cold, solitude becomes a silent and safe haven,
The poisoned blue flows through my veins, embracing suffering as a friend,
Guardian of the wounded heart, yet alive and beating beneath the layer of defense,
Accepting this secret burden, I find strength in melancholy.
i am double rainbows.
i am the streaks of silver in the old man's hair, i am spiny and bug-eyed.
i am the rainbow around the moon on misty nights. i am cactus eyes with a center of molten gold, i am almond crafted ones that pierce.
i am the smell after it rains. i am the earthworm on the sidewalk, i am the snail on the tall blade of grass, i am the
storm and the sky's tears.
i am the tablespoon of honey you take when you're ill. i am the spiderweb in the corner of your bedroom, i am the
comfort after the chaos of my sickness.
i am silver studded, i am the glowing omniscience of the moon's rays.
i am frightening.
i am the teeth and i am the blood and i am the bone,
i am the jaws that rip through soft skin
i am sharp teeth gnashing at any sign of emotion
and i will never take what i dish out for
my word is law.
a strange man comes with
stranger impulses after all;
i just hope you think i am beautiful.
One last Carolina Wren
jabs and hops
inside a shrinking ring of pale sunlight.
At the white door of a cold season
the wind dresses a scarecrow
with the spiny feathers
of the already dead.
Ice scabs pockmark a creaking earth.
A green legend
sinks deeper with every sunset.
We walk in our pockets
hands clasping at the blood-heat
of secretive shadows.
Boots tread through the sludge.
of an ever-lowering sky.
Ice pinholes vision,
one eye remains veiled,
the other
turns like a lighthouse.
Thresholds slip away
unreached.
Spiny horned lizard
Arizona sand digger
Flat body blunt snout
Where are you going
With slithery ugliness
Wait up old friend
Plant
Every Easter a plant with
big spiny leaves and spikes of
purplish flowers grows out of
my back, making it abundantly hard for me to
sit up against my pillows.
A thornbush, crowned by a rose
A spiny cactus, become ‘Queen of the Night’ ...
Atop fraught frames, shines glorious splendor
Heaven's treasures ~ man ought not surrender
Oh, holly tree, friend to me,
with scarlet berries to see
that delight my eyes to feast
as winter’s dearth so released.
To rest my head upon leaves
of evergreen, glossy sleeves -
spiny foliage shall seek
to hide ruddy breast and beak.
Melody of song I call
for you with snow’s silent fall,
and I, messenger of hope,
shall brighten days of white scope.
Sacred for peace and goodwill,
bringing warmth to season’s chill,
forever so shall you be -
Oh, holly tree, friend to me!
Two little kittens and a very big dog
Gazed at the creature that was sitting on a log
It looked a little slimy and it really wasn’t spiny
So, you can’t mistake a bullfrog for a hedgehog…
No, you can’t mistake a bullfrog for a hedgehog.
One little kitten said, “Please tell me who you are.”
The creature said, “The question that you ask me is bizarre,
For one lives under bushes and the other in a bog,
So, you can’t mistake a bullfrog for a hedgehog….
No, you can’t mistake a bullfrog for a hedgehog.”
The dog said, “Well I’m still not sure, could you remind me please?”
The creature said, “My skin is green and I cannot get fleas,
So though I do eat worms and slugs by moonlight or in fog,
You can’t mistake a bullfrog for a hedgehog…
No, you can’t mistake a bullfrog for a hedgehog.”
The other kitten said, “Did you come from a witch’s wand?”
A hedgehog yelled, “His skin has warts from living in a pond,
I saw him hop this morning from the pond across the road,
And you can’t mistake a hedgehog for a toad…
No, you can’t mistake a hedgehog for a toad!”
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