—Poems and Photos by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA
DANCE AT THE SHADOW EDGE
Sunday by the schoolyard
Whoever put it here? Skeleton
in a safety vest (fluorescent green)
on patrol inside yellow caution tape—
construction zone
with a pit (I’d guess) six feet deep—
beyond sunshine on schoolyard play-
field. Imagine children running,
calling to each other at their games.
No school today. A girl
and her dog dance across the green.
INHERITED ROOTS
Just a dream: you received a cyber-notice
of responsibility for a gigantic snarl of roots.
It covered acres, on earth deeded to your father
so many years ago. Your father—dead
three decades now—never said a thing about it.
You know nothing. How can you be responsible
for roots entwining soil somewhere you’ve
never even been?
Waking, you remember—at grade school,
bare as bones, the great roots of a tree exposed
like dragon toes dug into soil, holding up
a living tree—just a small tree—
so much of it growing underground.
The dream stays with you.
How can you respond? Pull the roots
out, destroy them?
MORNING RUSH HOUR
Traffic on two-lane
but quiet on our hillside,
trees going nowhere,
rooted while reaching for sun.
Breeze writes its history of leaves.
FREE AIR
Loki smells the vet’s office
long before I open the door; she wants
to stay in our little Honda, on wheels that spin us
far away. Feet on the ground, she turns-on
double-speed, circling, panting. Let’s get out
of here! She tucks her tail, shivers at leftover scent
of animal-fear—though she always calms
under the vet’s hand. She’s been left here before;
led by some stranger through the back exam-
room door, into the room of stainless cages.
Dogs and cats awaiting their fate.
Loki, whose heart’s desire is to know
the world entire, unleashed as wind in her lungs,
ever running.
GOLDEN EYES WIDE OPEN
In our troubled times—
shootings and building collapse,
war, allies betrayed—
our cat gives what cats can give:
hovering presence, his purr.
STONE MOUNTAIN UNDER MOON
In the woodstove, embers roast the evening.
Beyond, a dark hallway where dog and cat patrol—
cat maybe imagining rats underground
in a cage of ductwork and other secret organs
of the house; dog on guard with every sense,
listening for siren or coyote, sniffing for smoke
of fire gone wild. The Hunter’s Moon,
my favorite, comes fierce through the north
window, startling, aslant over petrified mountain.
Tonight, Moon’s reflected light will drain
into my dreams as dog and cat prowl the dark,
superheroes of a story I’ll never know.
Today’s LittleNip:
AFTER OCTOBER RAIN
—Taylor Graham
All you little leaves
of grass, just keep on growing.
Before we know it
you’ll be tall and full and strong
and oh yes, I’ll be mowing.
_____________________
Taylor Graham brings us her usual fine poems and photos from life in the foothills, and we thank her for those! This coming Sunday from 10am-12pm, Taylor Graham and Katy Brown will lead the Fall Poetry Workshop at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville, sponsored by American River Conservancy. Go to www.arconservancy.org/event/capturing-wakamatsu-a-poetry-walk-workshop-2 for info and to register.
As for tonight, in addition to Poetry Unplugged at Luna’s Cafe and Juice Bar at 8pm in Sacramento, Crocker Art Museum will present Open Poetry Night: In Tribute to painter/poet Frank LaPena at 7pm, including open mic. (Sign-ups at 6pm.) That’s at 216 O St. in Sacramento. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.
—Medusa, celebrating the poetry of the moon ~
—Anonymous Photo of a Hunter's Moon
For more about the Hunter’s Moon, go to
For more about the Hunter’s Moon, go to
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
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in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
