Autumnal Dread

The arrival of fall is an ominous sign,

It’s more than a year, a week or a day…

Another new chapter in time for me,

The leaves fall, the sun fades away.

Hopefully, winter will be kind

Granting me a bit longer stay

To tear off more calendar pages,

Walking further into the grey.

A Fragile Peace

You could hear the trouble brewing,

Faint whispers in the wind…

None of us predicted however,

The chaos poised, and ready to begin.

It might have been a rumor,

Or an egg arrogantly tossed…

Emotions, like bombs, exploded

All tranquility was lost.

Their numbers swelled on both sides,

New soldiers flew in with each breeze…

An epic battle had begun;

The crows at war in the Locust trees.

Ponds

Peaceful waters of the Sound

Lap the shores beneath my window;

The eagles screech, the herons honk,

Owls hoot in cautious innuendo.

Sometimes while basking in this beauty

I succumb to a heavy heart…

Missing the bullfrogs and the crickets,

The farm pond I loved from the very start.

Thirty Years/ Thirty Friends

Thirty years ago, thirty strangers

Descended on a coastal town…

All of us starting a new life

Checking off goals we’d each written down.

A new circle of friends drawn together,

Drinking gallons of wine on the beach,

Stumbled and fell on sand castles,

One by one, finding dreams within reach.

Thirty years later, the thirty friends,

Who loved their new lives so much…

Remembered their best years fondly,

While falling one by one out of touch.

Stephanie moved to Mexico,

Her husband and twelve others died,

The rest of us, in all walks of life,

Saluted those times and cried

The Bambi Complex

I was the subject of a family joke

Feeling the pain for sixty years…

“They had to drag me from the theater,

A little boy screaming in tears”.

The fear of losing all I love,

Lost security I’d never recover…

All occurred at the age of four

Witnessing the death of Bambi’s mother.

Exposed at such a tender age,

To adult’s cruel deeds and lies…

Left me still so unprepared,

For this lifetime of goodbyes.