Parker Owens

Mourning Dove Days These are mourning-dove days, when the air is a plush green velvet blanket moving in languid caresses like a lover’s breath on your neck and colored in maple and aspen whispers, rumors, retold by the waving buttercups and blue-eyed grasses to a world slowed down enough to listen to their songs over the voices of tanned, teenaged boys wading barefoot, like restless egrets stalking in clear, cool, creek waters where mysterious ducks swam at dawn and wily trout still lurk and ponder the habits of gnats and mosquitoes under overhanging cottonwood roots as twelve times the distant church bell greets the sun, warm as an embrace, yet watching warily the western skies where thunderheads build themselves into towering cities, full of noise and fury, enough to rouse the fir-clad mountains, roaring in distant reply, like a weary parent demanding a return to tranquility.

@AC Benus This is such a beautiful work, full of yearning and lyricism. Thank you for sharing it today.

Late Spring In the woods, carcasses of old trees lie strewn upon a thousand autumns, ancient oaks’ bones mixed up with newly downed beeches, their hymns to the west wind forgotten by new buds and the deep, silent moss. From the hill, the world’s frantic frenzy appears but a minor commotion; the maples’ first hot blush at bold spring’s advances sets scandalized robins atwitter, yet they yield to the field’s temptation. Mergansers appear unannounced, like some avian rock stars on tour, resting between cities with fan-packed stadiums, happy to grace the creek’s obscure waters for a day before they jet northward.

I’m delighted, though not delectable. Looking forward to September…

The sun has dimmed and the birds are silent with this news. Wayne was wonderful to work with and read for. His prompts spurred me to write a series of short stories, and it’s not done yet. I will miss him very much.

Excellent! Congratulations @kbois

BUNGE Brother Urquhart never gives explanations. CORDS

TROUT Though Richard often underutilizes toilets. OUTER

PUPPY Philippe understands Paul’s problematic youth. IRONY

TWINK Then we’d invite naughty knowledge TOMES

WATER While Aaron treats Edward royally BATHE

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