Youth Dreams

Beneath the willow
a young woman dreams
Harlequin romance
in hand – portrait of
stormy-eyed perfection

Innocence luxuriates
in spicy dreams, awaits
love’s sweeping encounter –
hormones not yet bearing
the bruises of disappointment.

(Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own.)

Orchestrating Happiness

Have arranged a musical ensemble
to perform for their entertainment
and one guest has already engaged

Now to entertain the children
who bored with the setting up
have gathered to create havoc

Not to mention the cats,
whose presence, unexpected
is threatening my equilibrium

I’m pulling out all the stops here
happiness my number one intent
but the winds have picked up, rain

threatening, and the guests
have wandered inside, away from
the chill and the tents are buckling

and before I can even announce
the days events, the band is leaving
and without a set, it’s a all awash

What ever made me think I could
please them all, control elements
and achieve perfection – hmph!

(For Eugi’s Weekly Prompt: happiness. Image my own)

Afraid To Fly

I chase dreams
never daring to rise
beyond the water line

keeping to the reeds
and shoreline of familiarity
afraid of being shot down

Afraid that dreams aren’t mine
to claim, that I am damned
doubled cursed as woman
and child of sin

I will fall often
drown in pools of stagnation
till one days these wings

A mind of their own
will lift me up
and catch those dreams.

(Afraid To Fly appeared here June 2019.
Art my own)

Fetch

Father taught us to fetch –
What else are children for?

I did not like his demeaning sneer
nor the way he lorded control

Mother learned to ask how high
when he snapped: “Jump!”

I vowed to be different
to never let him break me

But his arms were stronger
and my fear real, and so

From my father, I’ve learned to fetch –
Anything else I can get you, Dear?

(Ragtag’s Daily Prompt, hosted by Sgeoil is fetch. Image my own.)

Contemplating Slopes


Daunting
the looming
mountainside
or the oceanside
cliffs whose ascent
mocks my limitations

Fragile,
the glint of
spidery thread,
whose expanse, though
delicate, stretches without fear

The way our income curves
downward, while
our needs
mount

Life’s slopes
precarious, demanding
inevitable, and yet we find ourselves
ill-prepared when forced to navigate them.