- Author
- 04/22/2025
- 624 Words
- 116 Views
- 12 Comments
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Abhean's Verses - 3. April 15 through April 21
April 15
Old Holidays
On the porch
The Christmas Lights remain
hanging from the rafters yet unlit
to wait for a warm day and a tall stepladder
when perhaps gentle hands take them down
or choose to leave them up
until June.
Easter eggs
long ago pierced and blown out,
and colored with layers of wax and dye
in complex patterns known best by a childlike mind
now occupy a place of honor,
laid in Mom’s crystal bowl
for the week.
April 16
Hard Tasks
I won’t massage a porcupine,
or make its vertebrae align;
though greater hazards there may be,
I do not think it would be fine.
Some other tasks, you might agree
are just as hard on you and me,
like polishing a rhino’s horn
or swimming in the Arctic Sea.
It’s mad to brave the agave’s thorn,
inspect what clothes the hornet’s worn,
and bathe in a reactor lake
all radiation there to scorn.
Yet if it were for our love’s sake,
I’d risk each hurt, and chance each ache,
For one more sweet embrace divine
a precious joy of life to make.
April 17
Dust Ghosts
Don’t climb into the attic
and brave its gloom emphatic
to find costumes dramatic;
it could be quite traumatic.
If you’re at all asthmatic
aromas enigmatic
of mildews there climatic
might have you breathe erratic.
Up there be ghosts phosphatic
In bright array prismatic,
of two boys charismatic
who passed a day sabbatic
in poses acrobatic
exploring joys prostatic
found pinnacles acmatic
in voices operatic.
Those two are now geratic,
sclerotic and rheumatic,
yet visages phlegmatic
hide memories ecstatic.
April 18
Polite Request
Pardon me,
that jack-boot heel of yours
is stomping on my constitution
and it’s become quite difficult for us to breathe;
so be a dear and please remove it,
lest we do it for you
forcibly.
April 19
Haiku in the Lawn
In clumps of dark green
celandine spreads its wide leaves
to seize the stream bank.
Dog-tooth violet
appears on the forest floor
nodding at the sun.
In the short grasses
veronica bursts its bud
into bright blue smiles.
Vinca shows purple
where the puckerbrush stops short
And the field begins.
Sun-gold coltsfoot blooms
in inhospitable soil
to surprise the stones.
April 20
Sun Ray
This morning
I was reminded that
resurrection is still possible,
that hope and renewal remain open to us,
yet that resplendent dawn arising
may not appear the way
we expect.
April 21
In the Quiet House
Those fleeting moments
so few now
and rare,
When every sense is present
and alive to possibility;
When one is at once
at rest
yet alert
To hear the house hum in its stillness,
and watch dust motes dance on a stray sunbeam
above the ivy plant, its bicolored leaves beaded with mist,
as I scent the memory of coffee at breakfast
when your silver colored laugh made my tired joke shine;
These brief ticks of the clock
are bricks of living,
mortared in memory,
Building a walled garden in love.
Thank you for reading these. I hope at least one of them connected with you. Any comments, of any nature at all, are welcome.
-
11
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Recommended Comments
Chapter Comments
-
Newsletter
Sign UpSign Up and get an occasional Newsletter. Fill out your profile with favorite genres and say yes to genre news to get the monthly update for your favorite genres.