As I sat in the lobby of the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and looked at the screen of my phone, I realized I had been waiting for over an hour. To my increasing frustration, the woman next to me, who had just arrived, had her ticket number called immediately. Gloomily, I began to wonder, “Is there a better, more efficient way to do this?”
1. 6:00 am
I breathe it in
Running makes me free
And my little nose so piglet-y pink
So early in the morning when everyone else
Is sleeping soundly
It’s autumn.
2. Autumn
The word makes me smile
Things slow down but get fast
Bright pink cheeks
And red shoes
Folky songs we sing
Pretty coloured leaves
Career questions become clearer
And names I thought I’d forgotten
Come back up again
All in the name of fun, they say
Yeah,
It’s definitely autumn
3. My Lovely
"Daddy! Daddy!" I call, running down the hallway to the room at the back of the house where my father Cennanon sits behind his potter's wheel, shaping a clay vase.
He looks up and smiles at me. "What is it, Indiel?"
I twirl around, spreading my arms wide. "Spring!" I sing out happily.
"Come, my little one. We will go see spring together," he laughs, standing and washing the clay off of his hands. He takes my small hand in his own large one, and we walk outside together.
Chapter Six
Riley
Waiting
Impatiently waiting
For something out of reach
Just waiting
Foot taps the floor
Waiting for something
Some movement
Some time
Some thing
Refresh
Exasperated sigh
Slower than molasses
Nothing has changed
Nothing new
Nothing again
Glancing at the clock
Still waiting
On time
Mother Like Daughter
Mirror image,
A little part of you plays out,
Imparted into me,
Passed on,
One generation to the next.
Chapter Eleven
AFTER THE CROWD HAD LEFTAND THE LAD WAS ALONE, Cad told Iris to wait out by the opening of the alley.
“Why?” she asked. “Is there something wrong?”
“I just have to talk to that chap, alright?” he said. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
Iris nodded and walked off, leaving only Cad and the lad. Cad walked up to him and tapped him on his shoulder.
“Oh, hi,” the lad said. Up close, he looked around Cad’s age and was strong built like a farm boy.
“Hello,” Cad said flatly. “Were did you get the ‘falcon’?”
Chapter Ten
“GIVE HIM SOME SPACE!” Iris said, pushing her way in. She looked at the man carefully. A long thin cut, spilling blood was on Julius’s head and his arm was slightly burned. His face looked so peaceful, as if he was finally at rest.
“You’re not going to give up on me that easily,” Iris whispered. “Pika, go get my satchel!” The boy rushed to her tent, with its singed edges and smell of smoke. He retrieved the satchel and returned it to Iris.
“Here,” he said.
It was four o’clock in the afternoon and the lithe, slimy badger-lizard-corkscrew-like things that live on cheese went round and round and made holes in the grass plot around a sundial. All the thin, shabby-looking birds with feathers sticking out all over were flimsy and miserable, and the green pigs that were far from home were making odd noises between bellowing and whistling, with a sort of sneeze in the middle.
Summer
Wading through waist deep foxtails (swept
by the brooms
of the wind) she
could smell their gold on siroccos
wafting up in mirage creating waves.
Not a cloud
in the sky, or a
bird
in the air
but that one lone black old vulture
his wingspan a man's height across.
Art Exhibit
fallen blue leaves
translucent glass
scattered on a table
illuminated
rest breathlessly
upon white cloth
still, cold
as glass
Approach of a Storm
I saw the lightning leap from the mountain's crest
And a roar answered from the heavens.
An eagle, spiraling to her rocky nest,
missed the thunderbolt by a feather's breadth.
Quickly the clouds cloaked the sky,
Swiftly the sun was veiled in gray.
The wind had risen, cold and high;
It swirled and gusted, then it died.
In the silence I heard the clouds
Pouring a hundred thousand
diamond drops to the ground
While the thirsting earth drank them down.