Thursday, April 12, 2012

I Hate Dust

It is easier to complain about dust than cancer
It is easier to see
And easier to remove.
I can be angry about the dust.
I can wipe it clean and it is gone.
The dust will not ravage a body
Like cancer can.
I can tell if the dust has returned
Before I know about the cancer.
Both are silent things
One floats through the air,
The other slides through the blood stream.
Both alight somewhere
And start to accumulate,
Clogging up the works
Making the house unclean.
Just a little lemon oil and a dust rag are all I need
to remove the dust, but,
I wonder how chemo smells
And if everything glows and sparkles inside
When it is through.
I hate dust.

~Kathie Adams Brown (4-19-12)

Sunday, April 8, 2012

An Early Spring Walk in the Evening

Shawsheen River 4-7-2012
It is a peaceful occupation to walk
In the woods by the small pond
As the sun sinks low
And red-winged blackbirds call,
And Grackles whistle and click,
While wood ducks float lazily preening,
And all the world is hushed
With the clear blue sky an empty vault
Above the greening grass
As the lazy river glides by quietly
From lack of rain
And robins serenade the evening twilight
And bid good-bye to this day.

~Kathie Adams Brown (March 27, 2012)

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

There Are the Dead

 There are the dead
Standing in the bog
While a flicker laughs behind me
At the slowly creeping green,
The first sign of spring
Here among the dead.

Geese are busy nest building,
The wood ducks paddle
between silver stumps,
and tall snags
like up-ended bones,
stark, bare, and beautiful,
engraved by wind,
carved by bird beaks
with nest holes that now provide homes,
these silver arms reach to a springtime sky
blue as a robin’s egg,
strong arms that serve as perches
for the kingfisher and his mate
laughing their rattling call,
 a sound like dry bones,
while tree swallows glide by
on metallic blue wings,
building nests filled with life
among the dead.

~Kathie Adams Brown (April 3, 2012)