Fall Foliage #5

Fallen foliage
convenient to gather

collectible bicolor beauties
scattered in lavish ground displays

strewn as gilded, Persian-red carpets
leading through glittery, magical space

beneath bequeathing birch and maple
dressing down for the season

shedding all much too quickly
hastening our descent to winter.

Book Case

Standing guard
outside the bedroom door
in carefully composed vigil

a sculpture of sorts
artfully pleasing shape
strong vertical and horizontal lines

comforting presence
offering daily salutations
from Africa, Antarctica, a small Norwegian village

richly filled with eclectic details
plotted as past, future, present
mingling with my own existence.

Balancing Act

Delicately balanced
on a volcano
surrounded by ocean

naively ensconced
among Azorean hills
with distracting beauty

while sitting upon
a long, slow fuse
of violent potential

bubbling mud pits
puffing fumaroles
with invisible power

like erratic genes
viruses, prions
embedded faults

ticking silently
inexorably
as nature’s surprise clocks.

Island Refreshment

Around any corner
up from the sea
invisible currents
fluid refreshment

balm for the face
humidity-drenched skin
cooling massage
cleansing sensation

purest distillate
of far-fetched air
gift from Aeolus
for mid-ocean isle.

Family Reunion

Carry me back
to old, red, cotton-bred soil
from whence I sprung

not in a box of bones
just my transit
carved in stone

sown among others
father, mother, siblings
aunts Carrie, Helen

with grandfather Lee
his Miss Bonnie
neither known to me

greats Sam and Eliza
their parents, grands too
Meares, Nash, Terry

ancestor census
seven generations back
to Mary McD. Sherriden

all southern-born
except for Yorkshire Tom
and Dublin’s McDowells

gathered together
as layers of time
in single churchyard of stones

yankee transplant I
last reunion with this tribe
of Carolina kin.