Juggler, Whole Earth Festival, UC Davis
—Photo by Michelle Kunert
URBAN TUMBLEWEEDS
—Michelle Kunert, Sacramento
Travel along with the "urban tumbling tumbleweed"
Travel along with the "urban tumbling tumbleweed"
Handed out as convenience bags
often seen blown around by the wind outside
in streets and parking lots
often seen blown around by the wind outside
in streets and parking lots
or tangled as litter in bushes and trees
These plastic "tumbleweeds" probably don't break down in the sun
(just like the petrochemicals that make them)
before they sail to the ocean
to likely be mistaken for jellyfish and swallowed up by creatures
Some with labels of thrift stores
which perhaps shouldn't be making them, either
____________________
BOTTLEBRUSH
These plastic "tumbleweeds" probably don't break down in the sun
(just like the petrochemicals that make them)
before they sail to the ocean
to likely be mistaken for jellyfish and swallowed up by creatures
Some with labels of thrift stores
which perhaps shouldn't be making them, either
____________________
BOTTLEBRUSH
—Michelle Kunert
a sudden flash May rainstorm:
spent, the blooming crimson bottlebrush plant
spilling red needles all over the pavement outside
like those of a dead Christmas pine tree upon a white carpet
a sudden flash May rainstorm:
spent, the blooming crimson bottlebrush plant
spilling red needles all over the pavement outside
like those of a dead Christmas pine tree upon a white carpet
once buzzing with bees for its pollen
now what remains on its defrocked frame
now what remains on its defrocked frame
is just the humming of flies
___________________
Why does that girl run around all by herself around the schoolyard?
She must play with the other children at recess they say
Little do they know she daydreams of being elsewhere
Perhaps she is in her land of imaginary friends where she is a princess
rather than a "rebellious child" in need of chastisement and punishment
___________________
Why does that girl run around all by herself around the schoolyard?
She must play with the other children at recess they say
Little do they know she daydreams of being elsewhere
Perhaps she is in her land of imaginary friends where she is a princess
rather than a "rebellious child" in need of chastisement and punishment
(For Becky Foust, who was looking for poems for those with Asperger's syndrome)
—Michelle Kunert
Artwork from Short Center North,
Arden-Dimick Library
—Photo by Michelle Kunert
THE SEVEN TRIBES
—Olga Blu Browne, Sacramento
—Olga Blu Browne, Sacramento
Hiding beyond a shadow's
edge,
returning to the cycle of
time
waiting for the Vikings of
sunrise
and the host of phantom
listeners:
the red thread of the
ancients,
the seven tribes of the
Black Tortoise.
ancients,
the seven tribes of the
Black Tortoise.
_________________
SSHH
—Olga Blu BrowneBreath is the sacrifice,
sshh—listen to the silence,
read my words, feel what
I wrote.
Sshh—is breath the sacrifice
or merely the memory of a
fatigued mind?
__________________
—Olga Blu Browne
A web of barren branches
below a winter moon,
silent against a frozen earth
where a quilt of leaves
blankets the ground without
warmth.
(first pub. in Brevities)
Today's LittleNip:
FLESH
—Olga Blu Browne
Like an autobiography of
your emotions,
poetry is where the flesh
encounters the soul,
with the power and grace
of your words.
—Medusa
Yeti from Holland sings at the
Whole Earth Festival, UC Davis
—Photo by Michelle Kunert