Drive Out of State

long-way.jpg by George Hodan

Drive Out of State

They drove to the country one state after another

crushed under their wheels, rushing to her parents

She held the baby, nearly a toddler now

Sleeping on her lap - they had figured out

just how to facilitate this "disjointed aspect"

of their marriage - figured out just how to sustain

at the very least the friendship once felt

They left their lives in the city, just for a time

plans packed, labeled, left in cardboard boxes

eyes straight ahead visualizing the small house

on flat land, the future they would write

in the simplicity of waving fields of wheat

once again in the soft embrace of unison

Somewhere, maybe in Iowa, they slowed

on a relentlessly straight, low skied road

She lifted a stuck strand of hair from the baby's

flushed, damp, slumbering cheek

He rolled the car onto the soft shoulder

and with as much road behind them as

stretching ahead -

they stared into and

at each other

and with a silent separate sigh

The juggling ended

All of it -

Just like that

and they knew, that it did not matter

which direction they resumed

their destination was the same

Nowhere 

~

The Sunday Whirl « weekly wordles

Peace

view-image.php by Lynn Greyling

Peace 

Just out of sight

beyond the haze of misty horizon

there, conjure a sweet nest of golden twine for me

oh singing Spirits of the Bend

where I can carry each trouble

lay them down in nascent neglect as they

transform to tinkling trinkets sparkling on a coverlet

I pull over the curl of my unburdened back, floating, a soft cap, on a cerulean sea

sleep slipping swiftly over me - dreams sliding sweetly through me

as I, with somnolent sigh, melt molten into your trusted embrace

pouring peace  

~

The Sunday Whirl

Stress - A Bakers' Half Dozen

Petr Kratochvil

all work and no play

gently she opened the sunroom door intending

to walk to the child on window-seated cushions

book on knees lost in a world of black scribbles

they told her - stressed - that it was not healthy for a child

to sit still thus and yet,watching, paused at that

entryway she knew with surety that she stood at the

tip of the Universe, the child, her child, had entered and

slowly, silently, as on those ‘little cat feet’ she

retreated as gently as a lifting fog and

closed the door

on the worlds

opening behind

~

Dipthongs

She knew a teacher of English was she not to be

when the dipthongs tortured her so unceasing mercilessly

those vowels that slid and slipped and hid in plain sight

regaling their importance to young fresh faces just not right

young faces that ached with unspilled words just coalescing

criminal to constrain, contain and cut heart from passion dipthong rehashing

No! She felt the burgeoning boundless balloon pressure rising irrevocably in her chest

gathered papers, books, and out into natural unsliced language walked in freedom blessed

~ 

Paper gown on breast

She sits icy hands folded

in silent penitence for

all wrong-doing real

and imagined and waits

pulse pounding in ears

as in the other room

her films and destiny

are read

~

Cat claws

She holds with tenacious grip

in the sap-slipping betrayal

of the willow branch

slipping,

slipping,

bending

s

   l

     i

        d

             e

~

Star studded

burst in the navied night

of a peaceful heart

the first pointed star

of doubt doubling

trebling multiplying

in midnight madness

burst in the navied night

~

Noise

rumble of traffic

thrumming too near

machines beeping

intrusion

all suddenly clear

The mind straining

for clarity oeace dear

to revere

not here at all

not here

not here

~

On velvet paws

it comes to me

one silken step

after another

until

suddenly

shiver-trodden

I shake

The Illuminates ******************************* dedicated to Josh and Dana

dedicated to Josh and Dana 

with love 

~

                                                The Illuminates 

The Illuminates

striding onto a ribboning path

aware of the impact their scenes of love

conjure-shimmer upon remote romances

magically mystically brought near

The Illuminates

Igniting impassioned scenes left in

the litter-flotsam of mild milky memory

Rising from such mildewed lifeless sea-pool

Breaking surface as a whale on the tip of a tail

Filled with thrumming need, gleaming

as sun-soaked light follows a storm

The Illuminates
sign a contract for marriage soon to come - pen sparks dancing witnesses

freeing the flickered fire of a once-aflame love 

beyond earthly price - and all smile 

The Illuminates

breathing life into the spectre of a younger day

blowing away the hum-drum haunt of what once was

blazing the power-promise of this present and all that will come to pass

The Illuminates

Children to parents – Parents to children

Bonded in boundless bounty 

Bathed in coupled and collective

Luminosity 

Lush, insatiable immortality shining in the eyes of
children yet unborn 

links added, the gleaming chain continues 

unbroken 
and all smile as love illuminates the rainiest corners of each pounding heart

~

The Sunday Whirl