Virginia

like in movies
you can’t see the top
every one looks the same height
with trees disguised as shadows
and now the snow
lays accent on the slopes
peppering the hillsides
like cold sprinkled sugar
then we pass the slanted walls
pencil straight incisions
mark layers of sediment
showing hints of age, life
as the water tickles, trickles down
let’s raise those to the level they ought to be
oh gorgeous grazers of a sometimes He

    

    

Copyright L.M. 2007. (written in Virginia — ha! — on way to Florida.).

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Medians

in the centre: brown against white
sharpened all alone
or dull, hovering trees
it’s everywhere
but especially here
no deer yet — but it’s early
and I’m nervous to see the signs
inciting fear without threats
wrought from insecurity
and instead of removing the dead skin
pries up a new layer
anxious to be discarded
but maybe I don’t really know
so alert I’ll stay, at my window
watching the white turn gray

Copyright L.M. 2007.

Ticket to Euphoria

the future is bold, but the present is bleak
a hum of twilight circling the tent
generally, often, a warmer feeling
sends me aloft, and there I’m found swinging in trees

unusually quiet for midwinter’s day
a wind has picked up and carried along
a parcel of fire, with jacket of teeth
spearing, soaring, destroying all things

a sound indicates the pass of the hour
ticking and eating and filing away
the grass sings again and then it crescendos
all the way up to the branches and me

  

Copyright L.M. 2005.