Winter

Snowmelt

Terracotta pot, your aloe is drowned.

You are but a soup bowl, your rocks and shells

Under several inches of limpid water.

Your plants are limp, thawed after the freeze.

I wouldn't be surprised if the dog stopped

To take a long drink. The way the sun hits,

You are in shadow; under your own rim,

The clear pool is dark. Bits of bark

And potting-soil float in you.

The large stone beside you,

Riddled with ancient volcanic holes,

Sings with the breeze and birds

As the steady drip, drip, drip of snowmelt

Off the roof erodes him away.

Under Snow

The grass has waited

All its life

For this moment.

It shines in the sun

Like precious jade or malachite

Lifting its arms in joy.

The snow has lost its beauty

The cold has disappeared

Not even frost has power.

Every footprint is rescue for the lawn

I am alone no longer

The rooster crows.

My dirty feet

Leave dirty prints

In melting snow.

Good Riddance!

2020's over

The new year's just begun

The fireworks thunder overhead

And strobe across the sky. 

We've drained our last cold glasses of cider

Sang Auld Lang Syne twice through

Made no important resolutions

Now this year shall fly by too

Just as the last, going too fast

And we'll fail and cry and laugh our way

Through 2021. Happy New Year.