Portland Oregon (haiku)

Portland Oregon

I have family there I

Think I lost four more

 

C L Couch

 

Four homeless people die of exposure in Portland in first 10 days of 2017

 

Trees

Trees

(for an October prompt)

 

Tolkien liked trees

Robin Hood, too;

Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily,

I imagine,

Providing shelter

And playing fields

For lost boys

 

I like trees

 

Two of these peaked

High like towers from

The wide suburban plain

Of the backyard,

 

Splindly reaching toward

A clouded sky on

A Pittsburgh summer day

 

There was wind

At night, and upon the

Morning in the yard

One tree had fallen

 

Large across the lawn,

Tall on the ground

Sibling standing over

As if to demonstrate their

Name,

Weeping willow

 

For many days

I had climbed into the

Guard now dying,

Onto a lumbered platform

That my father built

 

That lay square among

Round branches

Inside uprooted, plodding

Blocks

Of grass

 

First time for me

With something monstrous

So close, so wrong

 

C L Couch

Psalm 32

Psalm 32

a song when we are done

 

Lord, I’ve lost it all

Age and youth

Health and wealth

Whatever I possessed

Is no longer in my

Hands

 

I wagered life

And sometimes won

Gained much, gave it away

Squandered some

As we are likely to do

 

Here I am, and there

You are

We draw closer all the

Time

With all that

I no longer have

 

Do you still love me,

Lord?

The mystics’ reply is

Yes, always

Yes from the Lord

Ovine Titanosaur

Ovine Titanosaur

A lost sheep led a farmer
toward discovery: broken
through terrestrial skin,
a thigh bone of Earth’s once-
roaming, largest dinosaur

Titanosaur
(there is only one
rank above the Titan)

There is precedence in
looking for the lost,
lone sheep

Stored wisdom and
insight add to the
task and treasure while
reconstructing ages

So, too, does one grower
looking for one charge—

one smaller creature, seeking
green, having turned away,
now only wanting home

(Thanks to The Guardian
for posting this story)