—Anonymous Photos
AUGUST HEAT
The sun walks with sizzling shoes breathing like a demon crow on wings.
Perplexed by the tires melting as they roll, the students tread to classes
in droves, scavenging for spots and spare change to be able to park.
The pathway haunts them, as they react to dissolving shadows over the
heated cement.
Plastic and metal click into binders, chasing pen trails down corridors
each one pestered by stanzas running the other way.
Glasses glaring in the afternoon, the aftershock of light blinds in the
sudden coolness of the neon colored chairs and tables nearby.
August, her warm saturated hand smoothed book covers, zipped
pencil pouches and coffee mugs, until the face of dusk opened.
A curved shadow pattern fractal inches across a t-shirt design,
as graphic designers and word puzzlers earn credentials
in the forges of a smoldering economy.
Like milky spirits, the nebula swirled in explosive color,
transcendent plumes of stardust lighting up their night sky.
The journey a mysterious path, voiceless except for the whir
whispering like the eternal wind.
Stark in the night a pair of eyes, alluring flame-colored: uncommon cat,
crouched in the grass, it moved with the breeze, closer to their camp.
In the woods the screech of an owl frightened her, as the night moon
echoed its sound.
The night! Yes! The fire glowing, sounds awakened in nature’s drama,
Zeus looking down from aura, storm clouds beckoning them to climb North!
Stars carried sparkle to his throne to his staff, “No!” says Zeus, storm must
abide by my rules, and cause havoc, bring on the lightning not twinkle of stars.
A plot! But the camp plodded onward to the next spot,
clouds chasing them toward the cliffs, she leading with the medallion of light.
Among the forest trees was the tranquil flutter of butterflies, white ones, like
the milky spirits and transcendent plumes that undulated across the moon.
All about were the cocoons of life, and the glow of heaven. Eden’s edge!
She bid them all under the branches, she placed medallion in the gnarly bark,
wherein Pandora’s Box was revealed, and the Scientific Age began.
On the fence of wisdom sat a faun playing a flute of peace.
In his space the realm of stars twinkled in rhythm of nirvana.
To the shore where the beached whale sat playing dice with the young boy,
and fish rolled over like trained dogs.
Animal life was tumultuous steaming and moving in circles,
like a tango dancer in a heated ballroom.
One shoe reaching to the ceiling, the fan rolling in coolness,
yet one could feel a sense of ghost dresses whirling and whirling,
enticing the waves to drift further until the birds saw the whale swimming
under the bridge, leaving the dice on the mossy rocks of his youth,
and Shakespeare's followers joined hands in a foggy waltz of the sea,
where wisdom was wrapped in a felt hat that lay on the granules of knowledge.
Sky, the sapphire,
On a haven of lush green in dawn’s rising moments
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Our thanks to Donald Anderson for providing us with these poems that he and Marie Ross did in collaboration before she passed away in 2014. Marie J. Ross was widely published and honored. Of her poems, “Oh Honored Stone” is engraved in granite at the All Veterans Memorial Plaza, in Lodi, and “Pink Toe Shoes” placed 3rd in The International Dancing Poetry Contest. She was both President of the Stockton-Lodi branch of NLAPW and Secretary for the NorCal Branch from 2010 to 2013. She passed away 2/20/2014. More about Marie may be seen at www.astarrynightproductions.com/poetryseries/pages/marie_ross_memorial_page.htm/ and
www.astarrynightproductions.com/poetryseries/pages/ross_marie.bio.htm/. The following is a link to Marie’s audio collection of poems she had recorded: mrottosbookstore.com/audio/Marie/.
Donald R. Anderson has been writing poetry since the mid-1990’s. He has been published in many small print publications and online, and self-published in many collaborative paperback anthologies and the “zine”, Poet’s Espresso. He’s working on a novel.
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Today’s LittleNip:
Whitecaps on the bay:
A broken signboard banging
in the April Wind.
—Richard Wright
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—Medusa
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