Intoxication

The birds flee

to coasts to rivers to

places where snow is a dream

and not a nightmare

There are always some that stay

small birds

more noise than size

They have strange ways of handling

the winter

Mostly, waiting until the ash berries

rot

and getting themselves drunk enough

to forget the cold

or be eaten by the sober hungry

Some coping strategies are less deadly than others

Intoxication is always more dangerous when things want to eat you.

---

For more coping, dangerous and otherwise, my fantasy novel, The Guests of Honor, is available here. Its sequel, With Honor Intact, can be found here.

Shelter

Up close, there are always

a thousand things that need doing

fading paint and sealant slowly dissolving

It was a chicken pen once

and now is only storage

A rough shack and yet-

I still remember when the freak

snowstorm made it impossible

to get back to the house

Somehow it was hard to see the

fading paint

through the thickness of the roof

It’s what’s inside that counts

In this case, mainly wheelbarrows, but those walls are thick and secure.

---

For more secure, and less secure, walls, my fantasy novel, The Guests of Honor, is available here. Its sequel, With Honor Intact, can be found here.

Seasonal Perspective

I prefer to remember the maple in fall-

Thirty years to grow

and only a single

spring afternoon to

dismantle

Even though it fell onto the rising buds

and the slow-emerging rhubarb

I prefer to remember the maple in fall

when it was at its most powerful

and not merely

a collection of branches

that blotted out

the sun

Most powerful when dying

I’ve always thought of autumn colours as a brilliant burst of defiance against the dying of the light.

---

For more defiance in the face of death, my fantasy novel, The Guests of Honor, is available here. Its sequel, With Honor Intact, can be found here.

Perspective

The rustic signs of neglect

are always

much more beautiful and artistic

when they aren’t in

your backyard

It’s hard to separate problem rust from artistic rust

It’s much easier to care about artistic composition when you aren’t worried about being flooded.

---

For more descriptions of things that are falling apart, artistically and otherwise, my fantasy novel, The Guests of Honor, is available here. Its sequel, With Honor Intact, can be found here.