Scentery

I need a change of scentery;

Evergreen breezes singing soft lulling nothings to my nose.

Smoky campfire wafting tinfoil dinner and smore bedtime stories

Lily pad lakes filled with rainbows of trout snacking on mosquito bites

An afternoon of scent recognition skills in tourist laden shops offering every candle

 imaginable and some not.

River water tumbling over mossy rock and sand

Horses in sweat-soaked leather waiting to carry me out and back

Lavender and sandalwood kneaded into the softening dough of my skin and brain, surrendering on the table, spent, post rocky trail hike

Moonlit scent hot tub in a starry twinkle safe envelope

Rose blossom bliss on a sun-warmed early morn

 Hammock cradle in cottonwood shade telling stories from years gone by

Hot inner tube scorch mixed with river splash ice cool

Omelets and orange juice and room service for two in the early afternoon

Fresh olfactory essence filling me renewed

Teacher

The city stands before her cloud colored chalkboard

her Transamerica building-shaped pointer

ready to emphasize her thoughts above the din

noise of her unruly class of wriggling metal children

Her students will never come to attention

Apple Jacks

He leaned in like a young brother

Quick

Without malice

Confident of what he needed from me

Conveying inability to do for himself what he could use me for;

To rub against my bare arm

Horses push;

Head butting their messages of discontent.

This was different

Hold still, there’s something in my eye

Do you see it?

Let me rub again, be my hands, help me get it out

Can you help me?

Let Go of Two

I let go of two;

They died weeks and

  months ago.

Yet when I

smart-phone scroll

Past M and C

they momentarily

resurrect and die again,

Over and over,

which is much

more difficult than

the final

Delete.

Creekside

One dry foot then the other enters the cool liquid transient surface

Water pooling and splashing, making

its

     smooth way down

Step, step,

along the gravel mossy bottom

Almost painful,

                           surely pleasurable

Stay, stay,

let it slide past

on its way to who knows where

some unseen gravity beckoning you

   Down,

       down,

            down

Time, where are you going?

Tiny Bones

Milky femur in round pebble nest, a dozen hues of nature’s brown grey palette

If this femur were mine, it would rest in boulders

Instead of its beach gravel grave

Too fresh and graphic on the bony scarred heels

Of the funeral of my 80-year-old mother

This soft beach image wells waves of dammed unexpected tears

Solace

Sorrow

Picture after picture,

Click after click

The hummingbird sits

Waiting in perfect patience

Not leaving, until my distracted

Eyes return to my page of words,

My heart heaving out its

Long overdue tears.

Is she with You

Now, Dad?

Can my sorrowful

Worry for Mom

Stop?

Can I know

She is not Lost,

Not waiting

At some in between

Place we allowed her

To go to before you

Might have been ready to greet her and welcome

Her back?

Silence

Is it time to just miss

Her when random flickers

Of long-submerged memories

Scorch into my mind?

Is that her soothing

Her child’s sobbing heart?

Solace

The car waits nearby while I visit

Your grave;

Are those squirrels in the tree

A vision of the cheerful

Couple that you two are again?

Is the hummingbird on the

Willow branch a

Mother’s distraction

To soothe this teary mourning

Middle-aged girl?

Sorrow