Tag: joy

Day Moon

Barbara Kaufmann2 Comments

The reeds make music
In their own greening voices,
They touch one another, like lovers caressing,
And the rustling rises like an anthem.
Sea oats don’t ask for second chances,
They just quiver with life,
And when the breeze passes by
They stand in ecstasy.

A falcon rides an updraft,
Above a sun-beaten shore
Not questioning but soaring,
Wings swooshing as it dives to find
An unsuspecting field mouse,
Whose time has run out,
The final screech unheard, except by the wind.

I walk for miles and miles,
My mind wandering and pondering
The evidence all around,
My eyes sting with the yellow of goldenrod
Born of sand and salt,
My ears ring with the humming of bees
Sucking the last bit of summer.

Late afternoon shadows pull me back
From thoughts that wandered farther than I
Along the beach,
I gather myself up, reluctantly,
Leaving the restless ocean behind.
The wind drums in my ears
This is your one and only chance.
I sense my breath keeping time with the wind,
Shivering……
I melt into the day moon.

The Bards Annual Anthology

                    2019

 

Caught

Barbara Kaufmann2 Comments

She finishes her exercise routine just as the ‘oldies’ music ends.  As she passes by her wall of childhood memories, the woman notices her favorite photo and soon she is lost in reverie. Her five year old self, dressed in a sleeveless romper, head thrown back toward the sun, is laughing. A stone ledge, where she is sitting, surrounds a  weedy garden, filled with early summer wildflowers. She knows her sister and cousin were with her, but she can’t remember why they aren’t in the picture.  The photo never fails to give her a warm feeling – what joy might feel like before something bad happens.

midnight wind
a pond filled with
shards of moonlight

~~~

Haibun Today A Quarterly Journal

Volume 11, Number 4, December 2017

~~~