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Shards of a Broken Diary

Shards of a Broken Diary
​

I didn’t lose my mind
I just dropped it
That’s all

​Here,
I have all the pieces


​
Pilgrimage to Semantia
​

Just past the frontier I crossed
Fields of words,
Reading,
Following the clues through
Forests of sentences that stood before a backdrop of
Tomes, from which streams of letters
Seeped.
 
I sought Seeking, the capital.
Soon
I saw it, with its buildings and…
Wait, those are stacks.
The central office
Someone was in charge, the
Librarian.
 
She looked over her bifocals
Can I help you young man?
I was touched.
Yes, tell me
Do we give love,
Or do we share love?
 
Well! she answered
Love cannot be taken.
 
I left feeling loved.
 
Picture





​










Mom

 
You were warmth
You gave me life
The confidence to live
I was afraid of the water
You taught me to swim
 
We lowered you into the ground
There was snow
Storms came, the ground froze
We left you in the cold
How could we?
 
You buried my father,
Your husband
You buried your daughter,
My sister
How could you?
 
I don’t understand
I did yesterday,
Last week sometime, last fall, mid-morning
I accepted condolences graciously
 
You told me how to love
Some of us must be told
You learned in your turn
You told me the secret:
Love is not measured
 
I will understand tomorrow
I have pushed the tears off again
I am still afraid of the water

​Wedding joy in Autumn

​Hitching the hitched; sharing souls sharing
Orange red and yellow leaves, wreathes
Archways of colour
Friends family fulfilled
I was there, we were there
Vows vocalised
What is winter’s weight when
In a tent we attend the intended
 
Snow may fall storms may blow
Inside we dance, dance, dance
​Apocalyptic Bus

​Bus rushing on
Driver nodding off
Crows circle, know their job
Driver deaf 




The Silent Stop Sign
 
Stop sign sitting silent by the
Lonely crossroads
Waiting for cars that come
So seldomly that two may never
Meet,
Do you ever tire of your job?
 
Here comes a rumbling car.
What's that?
The first one by in two long days?
I'm not surprised.
It's hitting eighty,
Maybe 90 miles an hour.
Yell your silent order out!
Don't look back if it goes by!
 
Are you surprised that your command,
Though silent, slows it down?
Stop! Stop! Stop!
The only noise that's made comes from the
Screeching tires.
 
But when the car is gone, what noise?
The moist hot air, abandoned summer homes is all.
Are those warming rays of beaming sunlight
Noise to you who cannot hear?