The Meadow I walked across a meadow once, where phlox and daisies grew, their brightly colored petals lightly dipped in morning dew. A tender carpet woven from the blades of grassy green, where nature tossed some sprigs of moss to fill the in-between. The smell of blooming flowers floated sweetly in the air, and pollinators on the wing made sure they’re always there. A field of beauty cast beneath the blue and cloudless s...

The crowd is getting anxious – then the lights begin to dim, and in the spotlight’s capture, they can see – it’s really him! A true iconic rocker – one that everybody knows, with a fanbase he’s collected from a thousand prior shows. The instruments are waking up, as the players take the stage and try to sound the same as when they’re played by Jimmy Page. He saunters to the microphone amidst the cheering fans, and makes a...

Vows You said you’d always be there with support through thick or thin, but when I needed shelter, you refused to let me in. I knocked and begged for mercy, so my needs were very clear – I pounded and I pounded, but you still refused to hear. You watched me from your window, like you wanted me to know that you’d never keep your promise – you just wanted me to go. Your vision of our future didn’t turn out like you planned,...

Peering just above the berm, her finger on the trigger, she spies a fast-approaching force, more powerful and bigger. Squinting through her rifle sights, she takes a steady bead, while trying hard to focus on the soldiers in the lead. She squeezes off a burst of fire from her AK-47, sees Russian forces now reduced by ten – perhaps eleven. But now her spot’s been compromised – must move to higher ground, she raises up her...

Fear You’re scaring me shitless when you speak of your pain, that hurt deep inside that the Doc can’t explain. All they can do is to put you through tests like they did years ago when it formed in your breasts. Mysteries hidden that must be revealed by rays and injections that flag what’s concealed. Our minds tend to wander from what we can’t see to a place that’s most likely the worst it can be. I know that your pain ten...

Prayer Denied Kneeling at a marker was a soldier’s widowed wife crying condemnation to the God that took his life. Gently running fingers over letters etched in stone, she wept and whispered softly that she felt so all alone. Trapped inside the moment when he kissed his girl goodbye, then left her scared and praying “Dear God, please don’t let him die”. But sadly, a denial’s how He answered her request – lost everything t...

We sit here as one, just myself and my gun, in a state of confusion and doubt – alone in my lair, in profound disrepair. with no obvious way to get out. No windows, no doors, and no carpeted floors, not a picture that hangs on the wall – no map to express any written address and no phone with a number to call. A place that’s impure, that’s so dark and obscure, where no cognizant thoughts are consigned – this place I enlis...

Betrayal More than a colleague, I called you my friend, was a miscalculation – I found in the end. The sordid agenda you’ve had all along, is banefully evil and morally wrong. You’re a smooth operator who’s casting out bait, while leaking exchanges to make you look great. Looking for tidbits, any presence of clues from close conversations – to package and use. You twist and embellish to thwart the benign, make the slighte...

I shouldn’t have to say it – it should come as no surprise, I’m thinking rhyme and meter when I look into your eyes. Everything you say to me, and everything you do, is captured in my crafted lines and sent right back to you. I pack your words and actions in a perfect rhyming verse that’s wrought with raw emotion that I carry like a curse. I’ve given all I have to give with little in return – I wasted so much love on you,...

The cattle drive was over and the men had drawn their pay – was time to lose those weeks of blues and to find a place to stay. They wandered past an old saloon built of wood and rusted tin – a place where scamps and saddle tramps came to gamble, drink and sin. The place was filled with drovers who had just come off the trail, a ranch’s crew, a drunk or two, and a boy who’d just made bail. The air was hot and humid and a b...

I wake up every morning from a total lack of sleep, soaking wet with tears and sweat from notions that I keep. I still can feel the bruises from the beating that I got, a belt to mesh with tender flesh – it happens quite a lot. My parents say they love me, but I know it isn’t true, another ruse my dad will use to beat me black and blue. When every session’s over and my blouse – a bloody mess, I try to gain composure, and...

When we got him as a puppy, he was angry and afraid – a little mutt with attitude that didn’t make the grade. He wasn’t born with papers, didn’t have a pedigree,refused to follow orders – wouldn’t go outside to pee. Rescued from the system – being passed from hand to handhe needed a forever home – a final place to land. It took some time to settle in – to learn his way around,to revel in the comfort of the loving home he’...

Ascension I knew the end was coming, though it happened in a flash –another car approaching, then a loud and violent crash. It couldn’t be avoided, it was simply meant to be –lost control, a double roll – and a stationary tree. The final jolt was brutal, then everything was still,but I didn’t feel discomfort – just a momentary chill. Then sudden warmth embraced me and I didn’t feel afraid,as several first responders stopp...

She opened up the letter – read the words through teary eyes,another kind rejection, but it’s not a big surprise. She drops it in the basket on a pile of fifty more,a wasted application – not a single open door. She’d graduated college like her parents said she should,her path to a brighter future – but it wasn’t looking good. She’d borrowed lots of money in pursuit of education –a worthless course of study and a pricey g...

Waves of people filled the streets while chanting hand in hand,in hopes they’d send a message that would spread across the land. Some acts of grave injustice that they’d witnessed on TVaroused a mass of anger ‘bout police brutality. A cry for racial justice and a search for common groundhad them shouting for attention with an omnipresent sound. Some would follow ordinance and tout a rightful cause,but others turned to vio...