a pair of deer
stops grazing to watch us pass
daylight fades away
by James Brush
a pair of deer
stops grazing to watch us pass
daylight fades away
a blue jay flies
from the abandoned nest
half an eggshell
wobbles in the dirt
broken cup of sky
Growing up on an overseas navy base,
I got used to seeing things like fighter jets
and men (mostly men) in uniform,
and great gray ships bristling with missiles,
floating bombs wrapped in asbestos
blankets, and then the submarines, silent
sharks run by strange bearded men.
During the cold war this was comforting,
amid all that monochrome uncertainty,
but when I see grey fighter planes tear
so unfamiliar now across gray sky
beyond circling swallows and vultures,
lost in all that grey, I begin to wonder
if this is why the Queen paints her ships blue.
dry live oak flowers
a withered rain following
each southerly gust
shrieking joy and fire, hair
snaking out the window, racing
parking garage curves
carbon monoxide hellsmoke fumes
tires screech pedestrians,
shorebound sailors, mostly
jump from her maniac path,
cursing the admiral’s
daughter, her giant car,
the course she charted
over asphalt and down
to the drunken shore
down shore drunken
stars sailing overhead
sunrise sunrise bubbling
up from the Atlantic, filling
her blonde hair, again, with fire
smoldering laughter, spark
the curves of the road, her
body shaking joy and flame
foot on the gas, all the way
if there’s a gun
it must be fired
that’s the rule
and so now this poem
has a gun hanging there
and it must go off
it’s not much of a rifle
just a .22, at least
a hundred years old
with stock worn smooth
nothing to race
a hunter or collector’s
blood
still, there are cacti
and roadsigns
on the highway
we could shoot
and deer
standing dumbly
on the road waiting
for wolves that
never show
but I’d really rather not
shoot any of these
though I like firing guns
I mean who doesn’t, right?
and so perhaps we’ll
leave it hanging there
for now
as if above the door
of a hill country cabin
across from the mounted
deer head wearing
a rakishly cocked gimme cap
and I’ll wake at night
and check occasionally
to see that it hasn’t moved
because someday, of course,
it has to be fired if not in this poem
certainly in another
abandoned nest
two mourning dove eggs
under open sky
—
They abandoned the nest after a week, leaving two eggs behind. Don’t know if they decided they didn’t like our porch and dogs, or if they got eaten. I suppose now the grackles, jays, squirrels or whoever else will get some eggs soon.
The desert stretches its paws in endless forevers.
Vultures and hawks circle overhead
eyeing ruined billboards advertising
diners gone since the seventies.
Echoes of the ancient world tumble
over rock, spill down through time.
Coyotes call those who never come,
hang up when no one answers.
This billion year old ocean sea still can drown,
though the water now just floats as clouds.
I walk from my car, leave it unlocked.
I walk over scrub grass desperate for water.
I walk toward rocks painted by ancient hands.
I walk over fish, seaweed, dinosaurs, meteorites.
I walk into time made visible, layered and worn.
I walk until sunset when stars begin to burn my skin.
I get in the car, drive to the next town,
find a motel and watch a ballgame on TV.
—
I’m attempting NaPoWriMo again. As usual only stones on the weekends. This year I also plan to write about one poetry collection per week, probably on Fridays. Let the madness begin.
the chickadee sits
on her nestlings, each breath
a feather’s tremble
—
I think I’ll be posting my small stones here for NaPoWriMo and maybe past that. I’m not sure I want to keep maintaining two blogs. We’ll see.
The sky is the east
bound highway. Winter
trees hold hawks.
How many miles
can we run
without radio?
The engine fades,
the rumble of the road,
its hypnosis.
Weave in and out
between trucks.
There’s more freeway
as much ahead
as behind.