Prayers

 
 
 

folding her prayers
 
into a handkerchief
 
for safekeeping

Tooth

 
 
 

child’s first lost tooth
 
tucked in an envelope
 
long forgotten

Fawn

 
 
 

the hard glitter
 
of oncoming headlights—
 
a fawn freezes

Banzai

 
 
 

boys of summer
 
riding wave after wave—
 
Banzai Pipeline

Unwrapping

 
 
 

trembling fingers
 
unwrapping the straw mat
 
for the last time

Breath

 
 
 

The harvest moon,
 
if taken in my hand,
 
would weigh one breath.

Bushels

 
 
 

bushels of plums—
 
the joy of abundance
 
from her orchard

Drought

 

missing them now

with the drought settling in—

wild violets

Blossom

 
 
 

searching with hope
 
for the first plum blossom
 
while snow still falls

Waiting

 
 
 

seventeen years
 
waiting for the skylark
 
that never came