Category Archives: Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie
Words in Flight
The first line of each breath-of-a-poem is taken from The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle.
~~ 1 ~~
whispering verses
in the sanatorium
to cure her own ills
~~ 2 ~~
No one is looking
as she hawks a gob of phlegm
into her hanky.
~~ 3 ~~
Nine days in a row
she walks to the barley field,
but no one is there.
~~ 4 ~~
A woman running
down a precarious path
stumbles on a plum.
~~ 5 ~~
ripening fruit trees
dropping rivulets of plums
to the orchard floor
~~ 6 ~~
with rooster feathers
making a watery soup
that no one will taste
~~ 7 ~~
Catching words in flight,
I tuck them into a file
to read six years hence.
~~ 8 ~~
in a land of heat
the sterile adulation
of the lizard’s tongue
~~ 9 ~~
for writing secrets
a handful of somber words
flicked across the page
~~ 10 ~~
a world made of wind—
how dull and uninspiring
for seekers of words
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, Monday Wordle #76
Small Wonders
~~ 1 ~~
blustery evening—
by faltering lantern light
no path for her feet
~~ 2 ~~
in her small kitchen
a sip or two of cocoa
from a broken cup
~~ 3 ~~
indulging herself
cocoa sprinkled with nutmeg
Sunday morning treat
~~ 4 ~~
the farm hands at dawn
hoping that some warmth will come
to the onion field
~~ 5 ~~
seeking a way out
the imprint of her longing
on wool, foam and stone
~~ 6 ~~
the grindstone
waiting for a knife
to sharpen
~~ 7 ~~
nacreous handle
of the old woman’s mirror
her consolation
© 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, Monday Wordle #46
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