Love Poem For a Place and a Girl

photo by Allison Tardio

She understands this place;

she understands me.

We walk the wooden boards in silence

and let Nature speak.

The creek eases past Cypress knees,

anchoring trees who have stood

peaceful witness

through lifetimes come and gone.

"Look," she says. "The paw paws are nearly ripe."

I inhale their tropical musk 

and reach for her hand.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Fireblossom Fridays, Lights, Camera, Love!

Forgotten Roads

Big Sky Road by Ella Wilson

You love to walk the forgotten roads,

the ones with weedy, overgrown shoulders

and missing road signs,

orphaned roads

that let you turn down the volume

on the clatter and chatter,

 feel the earth under your feet

and watch cloud shapes coalesce above.

Forgotten roads

let you take time

to remember

your name.

They don't hurry you

to get anywhere;

they honor you

right where you are.

Even as the milky clouds 

grow ashen and somber,

you walk.

You walk 

as raindrops tease,

then course down in a cavalry of wet.

In the petrichor

you smell the birth of another chance

and feel yourself

cleansed of artifice,

shining like a new penny

on the asphalt.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Ella's Edge

Like Water

photo by lolamouse 8/12

You run like water

down the path of least resistance

to my lowest point

honing in

on the nadir of my insecurities

and doubts

Given enough time

even a trickle 

wears down granite

A trifle

becomes malignant

insistent and insidious

turning solid mass

tenuous

I believe it is time

to dam you

 to damn you.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Open Link Night #58
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Open Link Monday

High Tailin' It Outta Here

Fear not, my little lovelies. The Mouse will return after a break from this wretched Southern MD heat. We will be visiting the lovely Pacific Northwest for about a week, and I will have little to no internet access, so things around my blogs will be quiet as...A MOUSE! (Boo, hiss)