Fatal Thoughts

Oceans, air currents, back roads,

So many ways to roam…

Ending always, on hands and knees,

Crawling my way back home.

Life has its ways to trip me,

Song lyrics veer me from the bucolic…

Lost lovers, pets and old friends kill,

Romantic alcoholics.

Forgiving Rose

In an English garden of neglect,

Whose beauty no one remembers or knows,

A stem rises above the weeds,

Sporting the most forgiving rose.

It doesn’t question the sudden decay,

Or ask of the gardener’s health.

The rose's concern is survival;

Therein lies its beauty and wealth.

My Delta

Under a slivered yellow moon,

When the stars take back the night,

Mt. Diablo turned blue in the horizon,

As the Mallard ducks took flight.

Crayfish in the mud and reeds,

Hid themselves from greedy carp.

White Egrets hovered over them,

In search of any beating heart.

This aquatic life continued daily

Along the banks the river wets;

The sun sinking behind houseboats

Ignited flaming red sunsets.

Yet I remember most of all,

Red Wing Blackbirds in the reeds;

The Bull Frog's baritone echoes. 
Dove and quail nests in tall weeds,

Wild lily pads and crickets,

Hyacinths and thick Duckweed…

Remind me of my youth and home;

Memories, like dyes that bleed.