My safety net has developed holes,
It’s begun to sink with rising tides
That are bringing plastics and driftwood
Into the already discombobulated foray
Of pinks, greens, oranges, and dust.
My dental-floss fixes promote algae
In places I don’t want algae.
Is this growth?
Have I become burdened with my own safety
To the point I’m now over my neck
And flailing for life?
Is this harmonious with progress,
Or is this the definition of distraction?
I recognize I’m becoming dizzy.
Mist hovers around distant peaks
In layers of varying degrees of opacity.
This romantic gesture of nature
Elegantly caresses the rolling edges
Of Oceans’ depth,
Lapping in anticipation of condensation,
Of erosion, of a life ready for swimming
And torrents swiftly moving debris,
Leftover madness,
In a slow waltz towards decomposition.
For life in its continued cycle
Sweeps all amongst its grip,
Heaves and blows, wisps and snows.
And goes and goes between distant tree tops
Of deep hidden green
Where damp darkness within hallows out
Moss and lichen’s dear nest,
Amidst fallen giants, long ever lasting,
With hearts of true desire so deeply brown
That all surrounding colour forms a perfect match,
Like needle covered ground,
Healthily swept clean of fungi
By the little nature cleaners,
Bacteria and organisms alive in depths
Scarcely observed in fleeting moments of daylight,
Heavily felt as clouds consistently continue
Rolling along distant peaks
In varying degrees of opacity.
I’ve found a seat
Among the bees
That’s got me feeling happy.
Like waterfalls
On warm summer days,
It hit the spot just right.
There’re workers here
Minding their gardens,
Preparing for next season’s frost.
And all around
I see quite green,
A world of vegetation.
In it’s ripest hour,
My mind at ease
Amidst the Autumn breeze.
I, squinting from the sun,
And all around a gentle hum
For Autumn has finally come.
In mid-autumn I enjoy how sun flares,
And in it’s wildest most passionate moments
It doesn’t have the all consuming power
The mid-summer sun has.
A t-shirt with an easy breeze you’re not yearning for.
Humility; knowing that in a few short months
The green-green vibrancy will explode
With red-orange-brown
That brings out mom’s hand-made mittens
And warm cups of tea.
It’s bewildering how all the
Little kids are dressed in green.
They’re wearing foreign flags and
Scrambling about in some kind of
Scatterbug formation.
It makes me think of the years I spent in ‘Nam.
– And coincidentally a delicious restaurant
Round the corner from here.
Chopsticks between eyes and arrows
And fabrics that tell me not to bring these new habits home.
I’m watching them with curiosity, the kids,
As they make their way about the grounds
Busier than all the ants of the world.
Hands flailing in some random forms of symmetry
That builds to an ecstatic culminations of sorts.
And then I get busy and pants with arrows pointing South
Cross my paths leaving home-job manicured
French poodles pissing about,
Confusing the tiny combat warriors.
I grow my tulips in large wooden buckets
Pansies are higher, in small clay potters
Resting precariously upon railings and windowsills
Then here we have hanging from awnings and perches
Creative little baskets filled up within:
Snap dragons, petunias, geraniums, lobelia
All overflowing with blossoms of life
Watering is fun for you know when it’s done
By the stream of water flowing out the base
Now off to the side of this here green kept lawn
Is a boxed off topsoil-rich haven of growth
Strictly for vegetables and strong smelling herbs
Which will feed me this summer
Well, most of the summer, after they’ve ripened
After they’ve grown high and wide
Some of them root plants, digging into earth
I’ve built up on rows to give them wide birth
Others are leafy greens with big flapping wings
Reaching out high for the hot summer sun
One row I planted with mixed lettuce fantasia
Its colours range wide, from green, purple, yellow
Well, that is my garden, my flowers and vegetables
It isn’t that big, and it’s grown a little wild
But it makes an honest greenthumb-man out of me.
Green green grass that pulled my eye
Away from studious pursuits,
Left me blinking beyond recognition
Against the mid-summer sun.
And ‘for too long I was bound
To be a gentleman farmer,
With two brown cows and a flock-o-chickens
To keep collectors at bay.
In my haste I left my pencils
Behind the ol’wrecked galley,
Which held my plans of adventure and folly
Through lands of foreign accents.
As Big Ben – punctual suitor a-high –
Chimed my daily ritual no more,
I whisked away the piles of hay
To woo my mid-summer sun.
She laughed at me upon her stoop
With joy only innocence can bring.
Though my knee, dusty it be
Was scraped in childhood folly,
Look here my man, in my hand
I’ve a sun and it’s even more fun.
Winter wears it’s colors proudly in this city
Fighting white with tropical greens
Peering around every West-Coast corner
Drab gray peaks and arches
Occasionally peak out from behind foggy haze
Curling around
Northern mountains
Leaving otherwise black vistas
With an icing-sugar like pose
After cold arctic winds
Blow off those quiet days
Maybe not everyday
But on the days it does
You look and smile and reach out
To say hello
Strolls through the park now are filled with dead leaves
Dead leaves float down from shifting canopies
Deciduous trees slowly sway with mother earths soothing motion
Dead leaves blanket soiled paths laid through summer
A softening, deadening all sounds of scraping dirt
But shuffling along as I push forward
Dead leaves dance with discarded cones
Tossed away in haste during a squirrels preparation
Dead leaves share with me a full spectrum of browns
Reds, oranges, greens, purples, blacks
As they run the test of time separated from their lifeline
Dead leaves tell of turning seasons
Lazy summer indulging into autumns necessary storage
And clear nights turning into frosts morning
Dead leaves share with me the art of romance
Harmony in age
Holding hands with Mother Nature
As she guides the procession forward
Beyond and beneath as I sat in the grass
Life was a flowing, amongst and along
Where once was a bumble bee
Soon came a mosquito
And the common house fly,
Pestering without biting
Towards the South was the valley
China Mountain loomed beyond
Green as the grass grew
They sky was as blue
And the purple lupins
With orange poppies gathered round
Mixed with slowly dying purple irises
With forget-me-nots galore.
Tramping around and around me
Going back, to, and forth
Was a fresh set of legs
A young border collie named Tex
Oversized collar and curious nose
Up and to the left now
Then back over he’d go.
Pansies along the railing
Painted clay earthy brown and red
And above it, the birdhouses
Two up there now
One rotting and perched
The other one newer
Enough for just one.
The big fir yonder
Was home to the blackbirds
They built in their nests
They grew their young offspring
However you look at it
They were encroaching on the squirrels
But that battle was lifelong
An act of natures wiles.
While sun started setting
Shadows became long
So sitting on the grass
Was no longer in the leaves
And off to the dinner table
To dine and try cards
And just like the sun’s retreat
So was the warmth