Author Archives: John

JUST BEGUN

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No small accomplishment
bringing life to this world—
a job just begun.

 

 

WPC(1) — “Achievement”

TRACE

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A taste of rain tinkling in the downspout
too light to hear upon the metal roof,
yet under this common wet covering

her scent mends everything
for the moment, for another beginning
and we inhale it—lungs full of new life.

And when we pray, it’s to the Goddess—
mother, lover—for our sustenance,
for the bloom and fruit of flesh renewed

as the damp earth exhales, breathes easily
to taste each lingering drop
that settles upon its petaled tongue.

 

AMERICAN WIDGEON

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Carnival colors
reflected on a breeze—
Disneyland for a duck.

 

 

XXOOXXOO

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Dear Dawn, I await you in a cavern
of wet blackness, upstate exhaust hangs
between me and the suns and stars

of my reward, (or as far as I have seen
of infinity), as the dew from the last rain
clings to each unhealthy particulate,

camouflaged to look and feel like fog.
I have missed your smile, bright eyes,
and warm touch across the landscape

of my face, but we inhale this wet veil
holding clay slopes damp, moistening
each cotyledon struggling to break free

from the earth’s grip to make grass,
turn hills green with the circumambulation
of black dots—cows and calves grazing.

Another ugly day without you, feeding
hay in gray, but it ain’t all bad—
I’ll see you when I can. xxooxxoo, J.

 

WHERE THE BOYS ARE

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I inhale deeply. Cigarette,
bad air, taste of damp earth
spinning in a picture too big to see.

Against one another,
the young bulls rub like teen-age
boys built for work, flexing

between play and combat,
clods of first-rain mud
dried upon their foreheads,

they sway like one beast
plodding towards hay,
from habit more than hunger.

In two weeks, bellows
will fill the canyon, the world
will change from maternal peace

to untamed cacophony,
primal roars and screams
piercing our pastoral quietude

for another calf, another day—
one more season of grass
to inhale deeply.

 

INDIGNANT

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Interrupting a face full
of the good life
can draw disturbing looks.

 

 

WPC(4) — “Minimalist”

DAY ONE

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Since Day One, drawn
to the fire, meat and music—
new words to an old song.

 

 

WPC(3) — “Minimalist”

 

DOWN IN THE VALLEY

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Bad air from the Bay
trapped beneath the warm
sunshine and new grass growing.

 

 

WPC(2) — “Minimalist”

 

STRAWBERRY CLOVER

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Wild explosions in orbit
just above the green feed
around our feet.

 

 

WPC(1) — “Minimalist”

 

COTYLEDONS—RED STEM FILAREE

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With rain upon the loose debris
of last year’s feed,
come first leaves of grass.