crush

The following is a portion of a recent double haiku palindrome:

I don’t want to ask

I only want to stand here

I want to watch him

© 8 June 2019

Cindy B. Stevens

#Breathe #Crush #Watch

Photo credit:  jay-clark-f1BYXBR7280-unsplash

my effort

This poem, “my effort”, is somewhat dark.  I’ll share two stanzas:

is it as easy as shrugging shoulders to plan a death?

your far away eyes

like the dog in the car in the parking lot

he gazes longingly over the backseat

out the rear window

I step from the limousine inside gated gardens

no tears left to wash my face

a raven flits from one monumental angel to another

exhausted with this life

why didn’t you whisper your pain?

© Cindy B. Stevens

28 September 2018

#alone #pain #speak

Photo credit:  kasturi-roy-a1LVsvM_zuE-unsplash

autograph

The week we receive our high school yearbooks, we pass them around homeroom.  People will write something sweet, nice, or flattering.  This excerpt is from “autograph”:

I don’t know what Jeff’s words mean

what he thanks me for

I know by the way he looks at me

it’s something

I won’t want my mother to see

© Cindy B. Stevens

27 April 2019

#autograph #magnet #trouble

Photo credit:  ben-warren-3NWGUmlltlU-unsplash

an open window

The following portion is from “an open window”, where Stella cat, at a younger age, was trying to catch leaves through the screened window:

leaves waltz and wrestle

I leap, swipe at them

I forget the screen

and peek to see if

anyone watches

© 16 June 2019

Cindy B. Stevens

#cat #dignified #tabby

Photo credit:  Cindy B. Stevens

beyond me

I write in my study, coffee shops, churches, bars, graveyards . . ..  These two stanzas of “beyond me” come from the graveyard:

 

Magnolia’s skirt lies on a meadow lawn

her limbs are not delicate whalebone in a hooped petticoat

they’re like arthritic fingers

some fractured by a lightning strike

dragged to a brush pile

they wait for a match to flame

a cylinder mower whirrs

broadcasted cuttings sprinkle a green fragrance

Willow celebrates snow melt

squirrels dance behind a hard winter tune

Lady Banks adorns a wrought iron gate

in this stone-wrapped graveyard

© Cindy B. Stevens

23 July 2017

#mower #iron #graveyard

Photo credit:  matt-seymour-4Me7b2hUTjU-unsplash