I wonder
if I am being missed
when you watch the waves
waltzing away
beneath the evening sky.
Sunset
Painted Stork
Just a painted stork
in a topaz sky
when I turned back
Marigold’s Secrets
Caterpillar,
you shouldn't leave with
marigold's secrets
Artificial Lights
For the garden
that longs for the moon
I give paper lanterns.
I love this one particularly as it gives the illusion of moonlight.
Water Lily
Water lily,
your dreams can float
without dandelions
Dragon Rose
Do you know the lore of the crimson rose and the thorns?
The thorns resented the glory of the rose and the curses that came their way.
It grew and turned them insane.
In a moment of madness they gored her petals over and over until her flesh bled out red.
The thorns didn’t know that even then she would be beautiful and she would be reborn as a dragon rose with white stripes, a souvenir of the scars left by the thorns.
Sunset
Is it the ocean’s kiss
that revives a dying sun?
or the moon’s longing whispers?
If not,
is it the hushed tears from the blinking stars?
Wild Flowers
In the wardrobe
of the forgotten fields
I found wildflowers for me.
Found these tiny flowers yesterday.
Googled and found that it is Murdannia Semeteres.
Heart on the Clothline
I saw your heart
billowing on the clothline
where you hung it out to dry,
while your soul left
for forty days of fasting in the desert.
Through your now clear
and transparent husk
I could see
you have marked the place
where you would
put them back—
right next to your wounds.
Turmeric On Collarbone
In your temple
I violate the ritual,
by drawing the pattern
of your birthmark
before brushing sindoor
on your forehead
and turmeric
on your collarbone.
Musings of a Wandering Dryad 