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Poet, Artist and co-owner of Lasting Images Photography

Monday, December 07, 2015

What I Think About On My Morning  Power Walk

What a glorious morning!
Fall finally shows its face. 
Poem: how the leaves fly up in a sudden burst
then fall like a shower of graduation hats.
No. Wrong season.

The neighbor’s whirling dervish dog
spins like a cloud of dust
or a small tornado.
Mercy! What is that about?
Wounded visions , manic mutts?

Strike swift cadence,
set steps to a silent mantra:
The black dress 
in the back of the closet,
black in the back, black in the back.

Round the first corner,
gradual upgrade, crunch of gravel,
embracing wind. Why three houses
on this street posted  “No Trespass”?
Did I remember to lock the door?

Purple crepe myrtle drapes
over fences, long slender branches
dripping with blooms.
Wave to thin , old guy on ten speed.
Silver hair, silver bike.

Pass the lumber mill. Headline: 
Fat Redhead Mowed Down by Log Truck.
Just wait. Six more months
marching 4 miles and it reads:
Thin Redhead Dispatched to Eternity.

In my brain I dance 
to a beebop of birdsong,
second wind kicks in, ears start to ring.
Tendons tingle, back starts to itch.
Tomorrow I’m musing the meaning of life.

             


2 comments:

Karin said...

Oh Judy, this is the first poem by you I remember on the Atlantic, it impressed me no end and it is even more powerful and punchy and sassy and free-association than I remember!!! thank tou for getting it out from the back of the closet :-)))) I knew you before I met you, as one sassy classy Texan red-head.

Judy Clem said...

Thanks. Unfortunately I never did get that black dress out of the back of the closet :(