Cookala's In Just Under the Wire

[cookala]

April 17



Back Bay

Back among the dunes
set back from the sea
marshy wetlands bloom
wild things roam free

Red hawks hunt field mice
crabs sidle and hide
herons stalk silver sides
clams sift algae tides

Wavelets glitter at noon
and slap the marshes knees
seagulls stretch and groom
wild things roam free



.

[Dunc]

Cookie

Thanks for my grackle! The colours are most unusual — the uncommon common grackle yet.

Luckless — Yeah, I buy lottery tickets on exactly the basis you describe.

Visiting — Yup, the transience of things includes people, alas. Here, have a hug.

Caged — Yup, our fears are our own tower guards and shoot to kill. Like your last verse too.

Cycle — At least you turned your Muse-on-strike into a poem. Mine won't even let me do that.

NaPo — it just might be you / who’s reserve / falters at sixteen. Uncanny prescience!

Roll on, Cookie!

Regards / Dunc

[Donner]

Hi, Cookie,

"Caged" - I wonder if the losses in life we go through free us more than cage us, and I know you've experienced quite a few the last few years. I guess it would depend on the person, the experience, but the capacity is there.

"The Cycle Repeats" - Ain't that the truth. I particularly liked "skunked of sleep".

"Back Bay" - More focus on freedom. Nice little snapshot. (We have wetlands and bird sanctuaries here, so I related to this. Saw a red-winged black bird in a cattail-filled ditch just the other day.)

Donner

[Speug]

Hi Cookie, I really like the internal rhymes and half-rhymes in this last one, and its riverine flow.

[cookala]

Thanks so much you naponutters - appreciate the comments and fluffery!
Dunc - grackles are basically black but oil slick black - iridescent when the sun hits them just so - very pretty, and large, maybe 12"
Donner - I guess it depends on the situation re:Caged, but yeah, it could go either way. glad you connected with Back Bay - I love those areas muchly, probably because I grew up on the Bay and was always out on the boat. I was a lucky kid that way.
Speug - glad you enjoyed!

[cookala]

April 18

Parting Thoughts

Love bleeds onto a page of words
that blur to black, Rorschach blots.
I remember whispers
once full of promise now evanesced
into a gray mist;
so it goes for our love,
once shared and alive
now just a part of our vintage past –
a time to be remembered,
cherished or not,
as we redefine our lives and ourselves
and move on,
searching for a reason to hope
that there is something
worth living for after all.



.

[cookala]

April 19


Spent

The sky is a chaotic swirl of clouds,
gray and yellow; an edgeless blend
that blots the sun.

There is no solace in it;
no bright warmth
to chase the chill of today.

There is only the headache
of heartaches, past and present,
shut in behind this winter window

and the passage of hopeless days
that render me bereft
as I ponder the unwritten future.



.

[cookala]

April 20

Beach Walk

I went in search of a snowy owl
but found myself instead
trekking through fall dunes, marveling
at the yellow orange and red
of beach flora gone dead.

I thought about the summer
and how it leaves us with a splash
of kaleidoscopic color
morphed onto the otherwise pale grass,
hoping that I, too, could live
such a colorful life and leave it
with that kind of panache.

I think, then, I could be content.



.

[5th column]

Hey Cookie, both Spent and Parting Thoughts are reflective outpourings of absence. Beach Walk takes the same thing and gives it a hopeful twist. It was raining here a little earlier. Rain like you wouldn't believe but it's only now that the thunder has arrived.

[Emily Bronte]

Hello Cookie,

There's loads to like here. "Grief", "Red Bellied Bully", "Caged" and "Back Bay" all resonated with me in different ways. I liked the humour of the word portrait you paint of this bird in Red bellied bully. Grief is effective use of personification and you've tapped into an energy there that its worth exploring. "Caged" gave me chills. I think the heart of the poem is contained in the first three strophes. I like the watery stream of consciousness feel of "Back Bay"--helps me see it in my mind.

We have ten to go!

Cheers,

Mari.

[cookala]

thanks so much 5th and Mari - appreciate your fluff muchly! been having a rough go of it this year, barely keeping it going, and I am so totally behind on fluff. apologies for that!

[cookala]

April 21

Off the Ledge

I’ve done it before; leapt off
the ledge and trusted myself
to soar in the rarified air
and feast on its nirvana, but

my wings always tire
far too soon; they’ve failed me
each time I’ve glimpsed the reward
just beyond my grasp.

Falling hurts.
Freedom has it’s price.

I ask myself
if it’s better to exist malcontent
or risk another chance
to finally find that headwind
that will ferry me home.



.

[cookala]

April 22

Spent

Frail as old age, frustrated
by limbs that may easily snap
if caught in the changing winds
while terror tinged thoughts
bode an uncertain doom.
That feeling of falling
under the rush of waves, hard hit
and gasping for breath,
keeps me away from beloved strolls
along the ever changing shoreline
where countless pebbles now lie
smirking at a lesser me.
All that’s left is to sit far back
along the dune line
and watch as the seagulls soar.



.

[cookala]

April 23

The Future

It lies there
like a lump in my breast,
directs my steps
along an uncertain path
that has too many stones
for tired feet to stumble upon
on their way home.

Time weakens the will;
the way is not clear;
there are too many forks
to confuse and distract.
Safe havens that once were
have passed into shadow and mist,
and are lost in the past.

I walk with unsteady steps,
dragged along by the sheer force
of my will, too stubborn to succumb
and become a pile of stones on a hill.
I search for a trail sign to guide me.



.

[5th column]

There is melancholy but also stubbornness in these Cookie. Not a lesser self, just a different one.