Are You Reading Me?
How fast can ivy crawl
Up the locust tree?
She reached the top of the wall,
It only took her three
Determined years, but it’s tall.
A cicada way up high
Will drone on and on,
‘C'mon give it your best try!’
But he'll be long gone
Before she reaches sky.
Go out of your way to be nice
You often pay the price
Things best left unsaid
Will echo in your head
So now you'll think twice
Before you give a shred.
What do you do when something's stale
Continue to choke it down
Or launch a jumper at the garbage pail
Like you’re shooting from downtown?
And what about if rot begins
Should you simply chuck it all?
Relentlessly the orrery spins
Regardless of your call.
The Blue Jay is bellicose
The Mourning Dove morose
And Robin seems quite reticent today,
His lack of luster shows
Perhaps because he knows
That winter is careening right this way.
The heady scent of milkweed flowers
Fills my skull to the brim
With memories of corn filled towers
And days of youthful vim
Those fragrant fields were free and fertile
Much like my young mind
That couldn’t grasp how fast I’d hurtle
Here, where I now find
Myself within a dismal prison
I designed so well
And every waving milkweed risen
Haunts me with its smell
As every hair begins to bristle
All along my nape
With urges that defy dismissal
And whisper of escape.
