Moons

One summer I drive across Texas forever.
Wheels spinning.
Lights flashing.
Cows mooing.
I don't stop. Clouds fall from the sky. Oil wells spill out onto a too brown landscape making it look like a sloppily iced sheet cake.
The kind my mother used to bake.
I drive on.
The highway rises up to meet the cloudless sky. I folllow it.
Better than driving in circles.

The Black Dog

The black dog sleeps in the cradle while the baby howls.
"My dear, did you notice?
The mantle clock stopped at four."
Breathe now.
Your essence clouds the mirror of my soul,
while this finger traces the cat's cradle of your brow.

Gusty Evening Light

"Look at that sunset."

Just four words were all it took to make me put down my dish towel and walk onto the deck to join John, Jim and Carol as they admired the last orange glow in the western sky as the sun disappeared behind the trees. Mill Creek was smooth - almost glassy - undisturbed. We were undisturbed. Occasionally an anonymous fish poked a nose through the surface to dine on the evening hatch of invisible insects that only hungry fish can see. He disappeared - leaving only widening ripples. A family of swans headed home. The mother osprey watched from her roost -always alert - ready to chase away whatever threatened her young. Above our heads, the wind worried the tree tops. I lit the lantern and turned it low. Just enough light now to see the contented faces of my husband and friends. I bring out coffee and we sit in silence enjoying the gusty evening light.

Yesterday's Weather

One summer they drove through Texas forever.

A merciless rain pursued them.

Battering, beating, pounding
Cascading through the ragged roof of the TR3

Inside, they had already drowned in silence.

The passion they had mistaken for love extinguished by a long winter, a short spring and a steady diet of canned corn and river water.

(The Rio Grande is not for drinking.)

Weary wipers struggled in vain to whoosh the rain from the windshield.

They drove on blindly.

Anxious to be someplace else. Desperate to be someone else