River Clock

River clock
tick-tocking by

floating debris
in fixed motion

downy feathers
flower petals
fallen leaves
fractured ice
life-seeking seeds

flowing onward
watched or not

to next hour
season and cycle.

Celestial Sensation

Waiting, waiting
for promised signal
from celestial heights

gazing, gazing
with eager scan
for glow-in-the-dark display

hoping, hoping
for cosmic surprise
in black, star-ridden sky

waiting, waiting
gazing upward
anticipating...

...a moment flares
in splendid silence
across Pegasus' Great Square.

Mid-August Blush

To the penetrating eye
of this wilderness aesthete

I see a dark-green canvas primed
on the opposite mountainside

ripening well in mid-August
under late summer's cooling sun

ready for autumnal washes
to paint its color-changing phases

now just slightest, pastel hint
of suggestive, pinkish tinge

a faint glaze over textured treetops
soon to show off Fall's rampant palette.