Solstice — A Poem

“Norway Maple, Crowned” — C.Birde, 6/24

Time slips

through fingers splayed

ray after ray

a corona glowing

The longest day’s light

collected,

cupped,

swallowed.

 

— C.Birde, 6/24

Endless — A Poem

A landscape photo of dried earth and clumps of tough, yellowing grasses beneath a white-cloud-filled, rainless, blue sky.
“August Plains” — C.Birde, 8/22

Overhead,

the Dog Star pants

& prowls a sky stretched

blue & rainless,

casts unhurried shadows

upon once-green grasses

stitched through

with summer’s leonine heat

turned rasping,

wheaten.

— C.Birde, 8/22

Here — A Poem

A photograph taken in Rocky Mountain National Park -- foreground of scrubby grasses, middle ground of conifers, background of mountains & bye sky.
“Old Fall River Road,
Rocky Mountain National Park” — C.Birde, 8/22

Locusts

     applaud

our efforts at the fringe

of pinetops & wind

set sharp against

the mountain’s

falling hip,

with thinned

& thinning blue sky

     caught

about our crowns

& wildflowers

nodding,

     sighing at our

earth-dusted feet –

“Yes,

oh, yes,

you’re truly

     h e r e.”

— C.Birde, 8/22

“Wildflowers, RMNP” — C.Birde, 8/20

Summer Slice — A Poem

An artfully altered photo of sliced peaches on a white plate.
“Peaches” — C.Birde, 8/21

Gluttonous of peaches –

I am grasping

  greedy

    miserly to shameful

degree.

“Let the juice run down

the chin”?

Nonsense.

Folly.

Shameful profligacy.

Serrated knife peels

brushed-velvet skin,

slices slim bright grins

from deep-grooved

stone.

Like myth & love,

I swallow whole.

Every liquid vein,

each mouthful –

  mine alone.

    Savor

      savor…

Ingest

the whole of Summer’s

transient warmth,

ward against impending

cold.

— C.Birde, 8/21

Wander — An Image

An artfully altered photo of a meadow, towering in a bloom of coneflowers, tickseed, black-eyed Susans, and evening Primrose.
“Meadow” — C.Birde, 8/21

“Go,

Stray,

Wander

as you must &

as you need…”

Her voice vined,

fruited

with wild grapes.

“When you return,

I will

astonish.”

— C.Birde, 8/21

Enervation — A Poem

Curbside.jpg
“Curbside Enervation” — C.Birde, 8/19

 

 

Tempers

and thermals

and solar flares.

Blare of horns

and blacktop’s

creaking heat.

Painted lines

and lines of cars

comprise a gridlock

of intent –

steel and chrome,

flesh and bone;

dismissed,

ignored,

unseen.

Melting

curbside mirage,

dressed in heat-

stirred floral cotton,

she slowly bastes

and enervates

and waits

to cross

the street.

 

 

— C.Birde, 8/19

 

 

 

 

Cicadasong — A Poem

Cicada.jpeg
“Cicada” — C.Birde, 7/19

 

Tymbol roar in treetops’

tossing crowns…

Soloists joined in chorus,

cycles converging

– annual, periodic –

indifferent to expectation;

pausing only to sip

hot nectar of oak and ash,

willow and maple,

between careless verse of

antique songs

– skyward, tossed –

to the panting, radiant

dog star.

 

— C.Birde, 7/19

 

Queenly — An Image

Queen Anne's Lace.jpg
“Queen Anne’s Lace” — C.Birde, 7/19

 

She left her things —

cobweb handkerchiefs;

delicate garments

of lace —

strewn about

within hedges,

at roadsides,

in sweet cottage

garden

beds.

So it is

with

Queens.

— C.Birde, 7/19

 

 

Mirage — A Poem

Mirage.jpg
“Mirage” — C.Birde, 7/19

 

Burdened

with the prophecy

of heat,

the week extends

its reach;

a dazzling blank

page,

a sheet refusing

thought,

breakthrough,

ink.

 

 

— C.Birde, 7/19