Not very

Not very active on this blog recently.  Please visit my other blog, South Englishtown Gazette, where I post more frequently.  

Max Tries to Make a Friend

Max sits, staring at the backdoor screen.

She walks, step-step, step-step, closer to the doorway,

eyes never wavering from

the silhouette of a newly-hatched basilisk lizard

clinging to the screen.

Slowly, gently, she reaches out her paw, touches the screen.

In an instant, the tiny basilisk leaps away, disappearing off the deck.

Max sits, staring at the backdoor screen, 

           waiting for her friend to return.

Half a Year

Half a year to be absent from the shores of my true life

was harder than I thought it could be;

harder than it ought to be, to step back into my old life.

Half a year wrapped in the cold throes of old obligations;

creating the endings I sought,

shaping forever-links to friends and memories.

Half a year to lay the old to satisfactory rest;

           the past is settled, the future is open

Lilies at the edge of the jungle.

Notes – I wrote this after spending 6 months in Rochester away from Dennis and Max in Belize while tying up my career at Mayo.  It was much more stressful than I had anticipated it would be, even though I visited Belize twice during that time. 

Tropical Fruit

The watermelon is ripe

when the agouti takes a bite.

The guava is nearly at its peak

when a jays jabs it with its beak.

The cashew fruit is ready

when the parrot has it in its belly.

We have yet to see

if it will be we

who are the pigs

that get the figs.

Too Much

 

 Too much to see, to feel,

to hear, to smell, to taste.

Overwhelmed, I close my eyes;

senses meld into new configurations.

Music joins the wind’s caress and the scent of the jungle night.

Sounds from the sea dissolve into the taste of wine on my tongue,

and my skin remembers the heat from the noonday sun.

In and out, 

my breaths turn my self in side out,

raw and exposed to the world. 

The Belt in the Back of the Wardrobe

The belt in the back of the wardrobe

is blooming with galaxies and nebulae of green.

New worlds unsuspected,

still unseen by the Hubble telescope,

expand independently of intelligent life on earth. 

The Volunteer

  

Creamy whiteness hidden inside magenta skin, the volunteer sweet potato

joins purple, white, green, and orange, destined for roasting.