Author: kimhaynesjohnson

Steeping Summertime 

Jug of sun tea on the back porch

Rocking chairs out front

Tractor mowing pastures

Melons on the vine

Hammock stretched between two trees

in the cool, sweet shade

Book and nap await, I’m 

steeping summertime! 

 

Part 1: wire sculpture/blind sketch poem – Let words flow 

fairy lights
twinkle lights
Christmas lights
fireflies
candlelight
starlight
moonlight
nightlight
sunlight
daylight
lighthouse
lightbulb
spotlight
backlight
strobe light
traffic light
landscape light
heart light
highlight
floodlight
morning light
guiding light
twilight
evening light
headlight
tail light
flashlight
lantern light 

Part 2: write using inspiration from Jennifer Jowett’s lines “twisted fates seek to know”

Lighthearted Night Conductor 

When the world sleeps
the forest playground
bursts into a spontaneous light show
spectacularly choreographed
to the orchestrated throngs of
trilling frogs and chirping crickets

twinkling starlight
flitting fairies
dancing fireflies
all flash on cue,
great great great grandfather oak’s
night-cloaked branches
conducting
a dot-to-dot blueprint
of lighthearted night spirits at play
his face unable to hide his
full-moon laughter

 

Narcissism

Narcissism
changes her ball gowns
and glittery slippers
between her mother’s
visitation and funeral
after she has throned herself
front and center
of both galas
pushing her grieving family
to the sides of her master plan,
playing the solitary victim
without a sceptered Kleenex 

She
alone
is
the
sun
of
her
universe –
controls
her
own
walls
in
her
ever-shrinking
castle

Her grandiose schemes
to conquer new empires?
declare all others incompetent

She’s an extra bride
at her son’s wedding
vying for the spotlight 

the videographer’s most powerful cameras
can’t dare to tell the truth
so he quits this wedding
leaving a prince without proof
(the kingdom overhears two sighs of relief!)

Narcissism believes herself superior
in every way
sneering at all the pitiful others,
yet fueled by their praise 

She schemes in her nail salon,
invites her puppets to tea 

She is entitled:
adjusts her
invisible crown
on the hour 

Her queendom maintains
superior toxicity ratings,
growing lonelier and lonelier
at the top 

as the former queen
rolls over in her grave,
her legacy stained

 

Asking for a Friend

On a red clay hill 

in Georgia

a tiny parachute 

floats down from 

the blue sky 

with a looming

question

from Heaven:

How can the

multitudes 

support 

Christian missions

while 

rejecting the

humanitarianism

of 

social activism?

Asking for a friend. 

 

Crystal Blue Icelandic Kool Aid

In the last-minute
merchandise
checkout maze,
I caved in and
bought an over-sized
funky-shaped
ice blue bottle
of spring water
fresh-squeezed
from a glacier in
Iceland.

My thirsty husband
eyed it skeptically,
driving along
to the strains of
Tommy James’
Crystal Blue Persuasion. 

“Just look to your soul
and open your mind …ooh, ooh”

You want a sip?
I asked him
This is not your average water.
It’s Icelandic –
straight from the glacial springs
of a whole other
continent!

The bottle was
a rectangular prism
taller than
the bank teller’s
drive-thru
whoosh capsule,
forcing him
to lean sideways
as he raised it
to his mouth.

I watched as he
took a swig,
licked his lips
to get the full effect,
then
awaited his reaction.

Tastes just like Kool-Aid to me
he decided
(clearly amused),
winking at me
with the twinkling eyes
of the real Santa Claus.

 

J.C. Perspective 

Hate is the sister who twists the knife
damns her brothers, preaches lies

Hope are her brothers who pray for her life
to experience love through cross-bearing eyes

 

March 13, 2020

I clenched my shawl
  tightly
     at my breast
         my fingers
             grasping the fringe
                   frayed threads
                           hanging
                                 on the edge 

              taking deep breaths
        winnowing what remained
from all that was ripped away

 

I enjoyed Zoom

time with Penny Kittle today and found her strategies so helpful! 

Long Ride Home 

Six Flags over Georgia, 1977
chain-clicking roller coaster
metal of the
Great American Scream Machine

shrieks of free-fall
cheeks flattened to face
against the wind,
angel wings threatened 

sticky sweetness of cotton candy
colorful quilt batting
scenting adolescent sweat
church youth group trying every chaperone’s nerves 

three-striped Adidas and jeans
with ruler-sized pocket combs
protruding from back pockets
worn proudly
leaving a statement behind
mine, orange with purple letters:
“Back Seat”, a pre-GPS indicator 

T-shirt booth with vinyl iron-on transfers
like warm dough fresh out of the dryer
I picked silver-glittered
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band
on a black shirt – for the Friday night roller skating rink hangout
with a drop off and pickup line like school 

and almost held hands with Don W. but picked Bobby S. instead
my preacher dad a chaperone
finding out 

my fortune cookie warning:
A long ride home is in your future.

 

Terriertorial

Like two jealous kids

Vying for our affection

These dogs pick show fights 

 

My father has always written his sermons with a fountain pen – he is the sheer image of a Dickensian writer hovering over his inkwell at his antique oak desk. So the tradition of fountain pen writing with a lazier spin (no inkwell) passed to my hands. 

Be Ye Transformed 

All because of
my gene pool

the choice
became
critical

my pen preference
particular

the silver spoon
of a poor preacher’s kid

neither chisel
nor charcoal
on stone
or papyrus

rather

a medium nib
rich indigo ink
a selection of styles
for any occasion

the everyday best choice:
a Pilot Varsity
Disposable
Fountain Pen
wielded at a 40 degree angle
moderate pressure
on the nib
flashing like
the shield of a warrior 

winning the day 

National
Fountain Pen Day –
celebrated annually
since 2012
on the first Friday
of November 

stories and histories
more orthodox than Bic
(cult following thick)

to celebrate:
take my hand
dare to
wade into the
fountain

be baptized
sprinkled
immersed
a fountain pen mermaid disciple 

be ye transformed

Link to fountain pen blogs:

https://www.fountainpenday.org/resources/blogs-websites/