Category Archives: loss

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reappearance

I post this poem a year ago in February. It comes back up today. My sister was born in the year of the dragon, so I think of her and miss her.

There appears a flight of dragons without heads

The flight appears
the dragons have lost their heads
they flame indiscriminately
but since they have no heads
the flame does not appear here

they loop in the air
in formation
and are beautiful
nearly silent
no heads to scream
just their wings
on the wind

we stand transfixed
and watch them

the flight
the dragons
who have lost their heads

written February 17, 2021

The headless dragons make me think of the leader dragging countries into war. I hope that other leaders do not follow.

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soft

The Ragtag Daily Prompt today is hard edge, but this photograph gives me the opposite feeling. Oh, I am sure there are edges in the distant mountains and the rocks are hard and perhaps there is a cliff beneath the water, but my photograph feels soft.

We had snow in the night, but it is still dark out. Very cold, but the snow is soft.

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apprentice

Am I his apprentice
or is he mine?

Neither, love,
all is fine.

He says he’s not
in love with me.

Play, love,
climb a tree.

He’s traveled and home
and doesn’t come by.

No worries, love
you won’t die.

I am sad and I miss him,
I long for his face.

It’s just the tide, love,
it will leave no trace.

Why, Beloved, is love
not for me?

Because, darling,
you chose to be free.

______________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: apprentice.

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his steady light

Dreaming of the Sun
whose warm rays surround her
and caress her
daily

she orbits him
and he pours his love on her
steady
constant
joyous

occasionally he flares up
and that might hurt
some of the small cells
on her surface

but she sheds
dead cells
they are reabsorbed
and she basks

in his warmth
with joy
ecstatic
orbit

she is alive
turning
whirling
so her small children
are not overcooked

like mercury

are not frozen

like uranus

mars is a rival
but the seas are dead
at least

her small children
think so

and venus
swelters
and is clouded
all the time
toxic

she turns
dancing
full of joy

in his steady light

___________________

written January 8, 2022

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Sorrow

I used to stop by more

but the people were less and less

the interactions faded to grey

I didn’t feel loved

I used to be ok with that

not feeling loved

not feeling valued

but now I want to be loved

And I am loved, to my surprise

as if a little love

has opened longing

so that I want more love


I want to be loved and feel loved

I send everyone love

even those who have been mean

and the incessant downvoters

and those who have me blocked

or don’t answer or ignore

or leave the catbox when I show up

I send love to you too


but now that I have a small crack

of love in my life, like the sun

shining on a crack in concrete

the seed stirs in sun and water

and grows

written 12/26/17. I wrote this about another writing site. It is falling to bits, like a old building not maintained. It makes me sad, because it is where my sister used to write. She died in 2012 and I still often miss her.

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Valentine

I am thinking of you
my love my valentine
on valentine’s day
at two in the morning

two to too
much to bear
I want to be a tiger
not an ox

disabled
but still strong
I settle into the traces
again

the load is placed
I look at my path
gather my strength
turn on my oxygen
and pull

no one expects
an ox on oxygen
to be able to pull

you don’t either

why do you think
so little of me
why do you scorn
what I do

when you return
you find
traces of the wagon wheels
on the ground

but once I am on the road
you can’t follow
you can’t find me
any more

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt slender, as in slender hope.

The photograph is neither an ox nor a tiger, but a sea lion, off of Marrowstone Island, Washington.