Tethering to Text

I have tied my eye

to the page.  Not the skipping

bounce of skimming.

No, this is really reading,

with attention measured out

in heaping mounds,

word by word, letter by letter,

sweep by mark by small

fine point.

 

Hay Bailers

Overturning warrens

they twisting hay

in mythic pitchforks while

the sun baked

their clay skin, bleeding

in small cracks.

 

Pleases Me

I use the word

that pleases me.  I enjoy

the way it looks.

Words are better than most

people I know.

They can travel with you

a long time.

Soft and comfortable on the page.

Like when I wear

my favorite T-shirt,

drinking chamomile tea.

Hiding away, safely tucked,

like my favorite word in a whole

paragraph of text.

 

Croaking

Some people

listen to the sounds

of tree frogs croaking

as they fall asleep.

I listen to the croaking

cranky voice of an old neighbor.

That is what it is like here.

He wants me to put grass

clippings in his yard, but I’m

just not sure how I feel

about dumping matter

in another person’s space,

with him ribbiting around

the corner at me.

 

Already & Not Yet

A tension

that can be felt between

what should be promise,

what is hoped for,

and what keeps arriving;

the waiting, the planning,

steeped in hopefulness,

pungent with the scent

of attempting optimism,

the waiting yet again.

The bud on the vine

that is there but not 

opened for us.

JD DeHart

---