A Cloud is an Elusive Thing

Thunderheads over Sycamore Canyon 10-20-09

A cloud is an elusive thing,
An ephemeral wisp, a temporary ghost,
As it floats across the sky
Changing form as fast as wind can sculpt it.
With unseen hands the master
Carves the soft and tattered edges
While here below on solid ground
I watch the artist work
And as I watch I wonder
About the great blue sky,
And galaxies beyond,
And my small life here,
On this shifting ground.
So which is more ephemeral?
The clouds which tears apart
Only to form once again
or me?
For here I stand this moment
Solid as can be
Never to return,
And even now the answer to this question
Eludes me.

~kathie adams brown (October 20, 2009)

One Single Impression Prompt: Elusive

Locust Birds

Like an army of locust
the fierce finch flocks descend
devouring greenery as they go
in this dry desert
where no tender shoots are safe
from beaks that gobble,
beaks that grab,
beaks that tear
and swallow.

~kathiesbirds (June 16, 2008)

OSI Prompt: Conquer

Brown Creeper

Brown Creeper 10-11-09 by Kathiesbirds

graphite and prisma color on paper.

My talisman arrived in autumn
On cryptic wings
Clinging
To the rough bark of a pine
Creeping
Up the solid girth
On tiny feet
With curved beak
Probing
In dark crevices
For that juicy morsel
That food, that sustenance
To carry us through winter
A plain bird
A subtle thing
It brought me life
On cryptic wings.

~Kathie Adams Brown (10-11-09)

OSI Prompt: Talisman