Stockings

I saw them in the movies

my Mom told me seams

must always be straight

I wasn't allowed to wear

stockings until I was way

past eight, garter belt rose

I slid those stockings over

my toes, one foot then the

other, worked them up

my legs encased in hose

silky sheen no seams

milky white above

December Flock

White ibis fly west at sunset

over my head in V formation

bellies scarlet reflect

extinction

Whisper

Like through the pines

whisper, keep your voice low

keep excitement in check

keep ire in check

keep yourself quiet

no one wants to hear

don't even

whisper

Let Me Be The One

Let Me Be The One

Let me be the one
who always lied to you
because that is what
you wanted to hear

Let me be the one
who always lied to you
so you would love me

Let me be the one
who always lied to you
be the last to escape
from the web

Wordle

Haunted

Muddy drooping staircase
purple gourd hangs from
a hook in its bitter mouth
sounds extract a chill
doll children all frightened
they'd only come to pluck treats
their eyes glossy round
terror on their kissed faces
inside the gourd he works
a microphone

Small Beauty

Haiku

Lacy spider web

iridescent water gems

privilege to see

Cherry Blossom

Haiku

love dances on breeze

cherry blossom bud explodes

delectable fruit

Beneath Golden Leaves

Haiku

beneath golden leaves

tiger preys on innocence

scream shatters silence

First prize January 2010 haiku competition

Poet's of the Palm Beaches

During the Day

Dust motes down

seen only in slants

sun carves its way

through the day

We wake, rise from

horizontal slowly

move through our

shower, shave

coffee

wine

down dust motes

seen only in sun

carved slants

through the day

Menu

Creole stew

chocolate skin

pepper peeled

chopped fine

garlic minced in

vegetables potted

great amalgam

oysters, shrimp

shorebirds, grasses

What

will we do?

Vacation

Have a Desert

outside the Oasis

I Have Always Known

I have always known

the whole, yet I look away

prefer to mire down, why

why, for I hate the mire

I blame it on many things

rightfully so, in the end

it comes down to me

I have always known

Trees

Only the twig knows

just one leaf spiraled away

it was her child

Like Georgia O'Keefe

I cry skeletons

bleached at a cracked

red dirt mud hole

visions etched in my face

I've got the blues and I like it

sing it to me Ray Charles

stroke my keys bay be

but I know I must leave

for the blues train your

brain: an addiction

caught in the trap of misery

where I no longer want to be