I posted these poems on Substack on June 19 and 20.
Yellow
Are you the golden sunbeam, or the earth it warms?
Are you the seed, swollen with water, or the sprout, knifing through the soil?
Are you the woody stem reaching skyward or the leaves soaking up sunlight?
Are you the golden disk of flowers or the bee drinking nectar and spreading pollen?
Are you the tightly packed head of seeds or the goldfinch that snatches a seed and flies away?
In the goldfinch, all the others are contained. Without them, no goldfinch.
Red
If you were red, would you be a Cardinal Flower blooming in a wetland where Green Frogs sing at the edge of a vernal pool?
Would you be the jaunty red crest of a Pileated Woodpecker with a chortling laugh, drilling for carpenter ants in the depths of an old oak?
Would you be the glowing embers beneath a grill, ready to cook a salmon steak or a vegetable kabob?
If I were red, I would be the feathers on the head of a Red-headed Woodpecker drumming on a limb where Bullfrogs sing of summer nuptials.
Green
My poem Green appears in the anthology Sinew from April Gloaming Publishing. As work for hire, it is not available for publication here.
Blue or The Big Crunch
This poem appeared in my book It’s Just a Phase, available from Walnut Street Publishing, A Punk Publishing Collective based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Accelerate toward the speed of light.
Giggle as incoming waves shift blue.
Avoid quantum singularities where
even electromagnetic rays bend.
Giggle as incoming waves shift blue.
Vision brackets a man in a blue coat.
Even electromagnetic rays bend.
He flies a blue kite, drops blue crumbs.
Vision brackets a man in a blue coat.
Growing heat invigorates storms.
He flies a blue kite, drops blue crumbs on seas
where blueish men fish.
Growing heat invigorates storms.
You approach a blue planet on seas
where blueish men fish
for blue salmon served with squid.
You approach a blue planet and
Avoid quantum singularities
where blue salmon is served with squid.
Accelerate toward the speed of light.
For the Birds
According to naturalist Aldo Leopold, the Indigo Bunting can “outblue” any Bluebird.
The Color of Fear
The fear that awakens me at 4:00 AM is a violet haze as clouds turn dark against the nightmare sky.
Yellow
Are you the golden sunbeam, or the earth it warms?
Are you the seed, swollen with water, or the sprout, knifing through the soil?
Are you the woody stem reaching skyward or the leaves soaking up sunlight?
Are you the golden disk of flowers or the bee drinking nectar and spreading pollen?
Are you the tightly packed head of seeds or the goldfinch that snatches a seed and flies away?
In the goldfinch, all the others are contained. Without them, no goldfinch.
Red
If you were red, would you be a Cardinal Flower blooming in a wetland where Green Frogs sing at the edge of a vernal pool?
Would you be the jaunty red crest of a Pileated Woodpecker with a chortling laugh, drilling for carpenter ants in the depths of an old oak?
Would you be the glowing embers beneath a grill, ready to cook a salmon steak or a vegetable kabob?
If I were red, I would be the feathers on the head of a Red-headed Woodpecker drumming on a limb where Bullfrogs sing of summer nuptials.
Green
My poem Green appears in the anthology Sinew from April Gloaming Publishing. As work for hire, it is not available for publication here.
Blue or The Big Crunch
This poem appeared in my book It’s Just a Phase, available from Walnut Street Publishing, A Punk Publishing Collective based in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Accelerate toward the speed of light.
Giggle as incoming waves shift blue.
Avoid quantum singularities where
even electromagnetic rays bend.
Giggle as incoming waves shift blue.
Vision brackets a man in a blue coat.
Even electromagnetic rays bend.
He flies a blue kite, drops blue crumbs.
Vision brackets a man in a blue coat.
Growing heat invigorates storms.
He flies a blue kite, drops blue crumbs on seas
where blueish men fish.
Growing heat invigorates storms.
You approach a blue planet on seas
where blueish men fish
for blue salmon served with squid.
You approach a blue planet and
Avoid quantum singularities
where blue salmon is served with squid.
Accelerate toward the speed of light.
For the Birds
According to naturalist Aldo Leopold, the Indigo Bunting can “outblue” any Bluebird.
The Color of Fear
The fear that awakens me at 4:00 AM is a violet haze as clouds turn dark against the nightmare sky.
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