
after a cleansing rain, hush
but for bird chatter,
soft blush of blooms on the breeze
~kat

everything seems normal in
a strange abnormal way, spring
is slowly blooming, song birds
twitter away and children home
from school on break are bored,
too bored to play; so normal, all
these little things, the moon and
stars by night, the sun by day and
gentle rain showers damp the
earth, now turning green from gray
but here behind these looming walls,
where home seems more a prison
cell; how long must we be doomed
to shelter here no one can tell, we
wait and hope our loved ones will
be safe from harm and well as days
grow longer, longer still, in this our
taste of hell…meanwhile sycophants
deny and lie and count the sick and
dead and scheme behind their
hallowed halls rewarding haves,
the have nots scraping stone for
bread; we’ve lost our heads, this
much I know, it’s true, if you are
sane you know it too, but there is
not much we can do but count the
hours, days and weeks, our hands
cleaned raw, faces untouched, sparse
company to keep, with nothing left
to do but sleep, to pray our weary
souls to keep beyond this valley
shadowed by the sowing that
we’ve reaped as history repeats
~kat
Week 1, Day 2 of sheltering in place, keeping my distance, washing my hands, feeling helpless yet hopeful we all make it out alive, knowing some of us will not.

Sunflowers
come spring, we’ll toss
sunflower seeds over the
wild grassy edge of our
beautiful sanctuary, daffodils
and roses too, along
the forest path…for in
a world so troubled,
there must always be
blossoms, sweet, blooming to
soften the darkest of nights,
if only for a season
~kat
Working my way back into the groove. Monday’s are for Magnetic Poetry and dalliances with the Muse. True story…we did pick up several packages of flower seeds over the weekend, to be sowed in a few weeks, come spring.

it was a warm breeze that
fooled me into thinking
it was spring…how I
celebrated her first blush;
wild flowers dancing in
a velvet ocean of green, but
I was overcome with
fever; it was all a lie…
morning’s icy breath lingered
too long and the dazzle died
~kat

etched in silver
i’m a woman
no longer young
changed by water
and wind, etched
in silver and want
hot flesh, a face
disappearing into
landscape
~kat
A blackout poem based on the poem below by Allison Funk:
Self-Portrait in the Nude
To understand what it would be like
to remove my clothes
as painters do in portraits of themselves
I imagine I’m the woman
who knows her body
no longer belongs to the young artist
who painted herself before she had children,
before her topography was changed
by forces erosive as water and wind,
and yet she goes on painting it,
the girdle of her earth that is now an etched terrain
crossed with silver rivulets.
And hills, I want to say to her.
Valleys. Then hummocks,
hot springs, hoodoo. What is art about
if not depression? Uplift? Depression
again? At which she straightens
the flesh of her shoulders and neck
to face me before I disappear(ing)
into landscape,
my favorite state of undress.
Copyright © 2018 Allison Funk.