HAIKU- Bite Me

Artist: Even Liu. Source: Peepchic

Lovers on a Rainy Night

I would tether a cloud for you Because you love the rain at night

With a smile soft and wise you Pull me close and whisper I do not wish for a captive cloud

A lone cloud bound by rope Would weep cruel tears endlessly That would be a torture love

Let the rain drip From the eaves of its own accord Like tonight

You are here The rain is here I am happy.

-Skye

Walking

The sky is milk The sea is quicksilver The beach is leaden

No birds No nimble crabs Just human passengers Traveling along the break of day

-Skye

On Loving a Poet

A poet speaks Imprecisely

Leaves room between words

Your voice so exacting in your desire terrifies her

As if you would pin her meanings to the pages

Turning wonder Into dead butterflies

You love her but cannot fathom her language

You drown in it Reaching for her

Placid on the far shore She throws pages and pages

Written for you Into the wind

-Skye

Title: Rabbits and Triangles  Artist: Schinako

Bunny Math

Bunnies in the Garden Bunnies in the grass

Far too many bunnies Large and small Big and fat Black and brown ones Some snowy white

I cannot believe it They multiplied over Night

The garden is in shambles The lawn is such a mess I love the little bunnies

But to this I must confess I must share some regrets That freeing two little Easter bunnies Has had such exponential effects.

Plague Doctor

So here in the shining city on the hill we watched the broad plain with its shifting grasses always thinking the trouble would arrive at the gate announcing itself.

But no, it crept in in ones and twos broken glass lungs etched in X-rays seeping in under the gate.

We could not fathom the wave of misery that broke us open.

The burbling cry of wet breath that choked the air filling every corner.

We wailed for answers.

The plague doctor came surveying the heaps of dead plying us with platitudes and potions crying “Let them inject bleach!”

Pushing out the dead early in the morning I saw him shambling down the hill.

Empty eyes behind his mask and blood on his hands.

-Skye

Image:The New Bedford Orpheum Theater, Massachusetts Photographer:Frank Grace Source:Ruinationstation

Elegy for the New Bedford Orpheum Theater

The Titanic sank The day you opened

Your gilt was fresh and tableaus bright

It was April 15, 1912 World war had not come Flu had not come World war had not come again

Merry patrons settled into indigo velvet

900 miles east northeast The cold water swallowed thousands While a different band played

Your opulence faded fast Dust caked, peeling, Stripped mostly Bare

You were sold and sold again

The rain came in leaving Plaster puckers, mildew stains, Mushy boards

For-sale sign clouded by rust You are eternally empty

Swallowed whole I tread gently on your aching abandoned bones Lighting candles And singing For the dead.

Image: https://www.instagram.com/p/CB2NwjDFn0g/ Source: llovinghome

HAIKU- Clothesline

Summer sun dried clothes My chemise courting daisies Dancing on the line

-Skye

In Deep

One night in a bath of stars Skin slick dripping starlight

I let myself down below the water

The burn to breathe casting star shards Beyond closed eyes

Then there is just me on the edge of the universe heaving breath into the void -Skye

artwork | Ishii Nobuo

Image source: Personal work inspired by the Vastra-Haran housed in the National Museum New Delhi

River Bathing

Bathing women are both vulnerable and dangerous Clothes undefended on the shore Bodies unfurling among the reeds.

Image Source: Brassai, circa1946 Source: letaobloquista

Brassai Roaming Paris

After the churning of buildings and bodies After the round ups of 75,000 Jewish citizens After the ovens to the east stopped their burning

The streets were swept The babies boomed And lovely ladies once again wore real silk stockings

You saw them stop for moment

The baby was sleeping

The headlines were posted Every word shouting LARGE FONT BLACK and BOLD

“Francais! Reveillez-vous!” “Aux Hommes d’Ordre et de Bon Sens”

She gave his arm a Contented almost sleepy Squeeze

Politics was politics again Life was life again

The baby woke up and began to cry.

-Skye