A Saga in Six Days of Life When You Live on a Farm: Featuring Boo Radley and the Unexpected, Day 6

All that matters to Boo in this world is his family (who speak his love language ~ food and attention)

Day 6

our Boo Radley

did a most

surprising thing ~

our Boo

forced a threatening

brown bull to retreat

to turn tail

and

take to the woods

or was that his intention?

was he a charger of bulls

or was he a shepherd

of cows?

was he herding them

back in their farm direction

because he knew they

were lost, drifters one

farm south of theirs,

needing a nudge?

this is, after all

the Funny Farm,

where you have

to be a little

sideways to end

up here in the

land of the

unexpected

where wrinkles in

perceptions become

realities like this:

Boo Radley is a

shepherding schnoodle

of lost herds, the

meanest bulls not

excluded, because

he knows how it feels

to be lost, looking

for home, aggressively

persuading them not

to give up a good thing

all this brings back

the day we were

on the beach

late afternoon

on a cloudy day

sipping wine

on a blanket

when two women

much further into

their bottle

walked by us too close

to our beach campout

according to Boo

Boo corrected

them

~not politely~

and in their swagger,

in their smirks,

their chuckles,

one taunted back:

oh, what a little badass!

fast forward

the years

to today and I

want to go back

to that moment

and say

yes ma’am,

he certainly is!

he fulfilled the

prophesy at the bottom

of your

wine bottle

you saw the future

of our little rescue

Schnoodle named

Boo Radley~

a champion badass

herder of bulls

you weren’t bullshitting

Purple Foxglove Forgiveness Haiku

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am I naive to

believe that purple foxgloves

bloom in forgiveness?

that what was destroyed

smiles Heaven’s understanding

and blesses again?

or am I just a

poet choosing to believe

signs hold messages?

Has Tomorrow Come?

when I’m birdwatching

and you’re nodding

off in the chair

next to me on

our campsite,

me: thrilled in

a composed way

behind my binoculars

and you with

holes in your socks

broken-breath quiet snores

I wonder ~


are we those old

people we’ve

always known

we’d become

one day?

On Holocaust Remembrance Day: an etheree

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To commemorate Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I’ve written a reverse etheree.

To the hell of a concentration camp

To the death showers of Zyklon B

To separated families

To long lost baby shoes

To Hitler’s nightmare

To starvation

To ghettos

To hate

I

Am

From love

From living

From just like you

From family meals 

From falling deep in love

From dreams and aspirations

From the freedom to live and choose

From the tribe of Father Abraham

From my ancestors’ strong family tree

Other Sunrises

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Other Sunrises

if we have

glorious sunrises

here on earth

are there billions

of

galaxies

with other sunrises?

and how breathtaking

are they?

*********

p.s. It’s May 1. Have you said, “rabbit, rabbit?” yet on the first? Here’s to a great month, plus a picture of my backyard rabbit named Rabbit Rabbit.

Day 29 of #VerseLove with Fran Haley of North Carolina

Fran Haley of North Carolina is our host for Day 29 of #VerseLove, inspiring us to write Heart Map poems. You can read her full prompt here.

Fran explains that author Georgia Heard created Heart Maps to help younger students find their own meaningful stories. She encourages us to brainstorm “first times” in our own lives – or last times.

The Last Time

The last time I came home

before you died you

stood feebly

in the door

cold rushing in

against your

flannel pajamas

swallowing you

life leaving your body

escaping you

your voice

deep and low

sunk to the bottom

of your being

a soul cry of despair

saying my name

Kim

proving you knew me

there at the bitter end

unlike the times before

your trembling arms

reaching for me

I reeled at

the change in you

in only a few days

and held you up

while we cried

both knowing

this would be

our last

standing hug

our last

cry together

our final

goodbye

before you

slipped away

I watched you die

Day 24 of #VerseLove with Kevin Hodgson

Kevin Hodgson of Massachussetts is our host for Day 24 of #VerseLove. You can read his full prompt here.

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Kevin says, “Ada Limon’s amazing poem for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission – In Praise of Mystery: A Poem For Europa – often lingers in my mind, particularly as its launch into space is on the horizon in October. The sky is full of inspiration as is the mission of discovery. Her poem has me thinking of constellations, in particular, and how people across time, in different geographic places, have so often gazed up at the night sky and sought connections between the pinpoints of light, and told stories and created poems, and shared experiences.”

Kevin urges us to “consider a constellation as a starting point for a poem. Here is a list of the 88 “official” constellations.”

Connecting the Dots (Lepus the Hare)

on the screen

a couple hops

off a train

in Vienna for

an evening together

strangers taking

a chance on love

~before sunrise~

a palm reader

ambles over in

her flowing dress

and head wrap to

read their destinies

when the stars exploded

billions of years ago

they formed everything

that is this world

everything we know

is stardust, so

don’t forget:

you are stardust…..

you are both stars

then she walks off

into the night

where they go, too,

to do more-than-

stranger-things

before he recites

an Auden poem

the years shall

run like rabbits...

and so I

connect the

dots….{Lepus!}

because

As I Walked Out

One Evening

I saw them

yes, I saw

those rabbits

running like years

through the

meadows of heaven

through this

grassland galaxy

through this

Royal Fortress Meadow

Day 23 of #VerseLove with Anna Roseboro

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Anna Roseboro of Michigan is our host for Day 23 of #VerseLove. You can read her full prompt here. She inspires us to write April Showers Bring May Flowers poems about the idea that good things come from the not-so-good.

Her challenge: Think metaphorically, about a teary time or not so nice incident that preceded or evolved into a cheery time in your life, and then in sixteen lines or fewer, describe the time or incident that could be an affirmation that “Yes, April showers do bring May flowers” or the opposite.

What Makes them Rescues 

their misfortune makes
them rescues ~
the kind 
with serious baggage
where cell phone dings
and the 
smell of heat 
bring flattened-ear,
tucked-tail trembling,
the kind that
gaze into your
eyes, wishing
they could pour out
their story but
certain you
already know