Ruby of the Deep

I am the ruby of oceans and valleys deep

Born of dear marine queen and stoic world industry

In the place where thick warm winds bend trees to weep, sweet bright peaches sway in peace.

Mine is a life of cacophonous solitude

Alongside burning embers, ideals of all multitudes

By night I dream stars in the sun and by day I construct clouds in the moon.

Mine is a country of scarlet clay and rich amethyst

Giving life to cerulean truth and golden ambition

Home to values of possibility and purpose that I hold like a dove, fighting to fruition.

Mine is the lineage of trifold belonging

Emerald coast laced with heavenly mist; navy forest pinked with quiet bliss;

White mountains o’er fields of grain blowing listless.

So my ancestors came to this country under cotton kerchiefs and clasped hands

Wanting a life of multicolored majesty beneath justices’ endearment.

And I, I want a life of worldly experience

Where I can wield power for progress and mend the frayed fleece

For I am the ruby of oceans and valleys deep,

Born for inspiring love and championing peace.

The Call for Plastic Bottles

A parody of, "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud," by William Wordsworth, 1807.

I descended angry as a cloud

That sinks in deep o'er city models

When all at once I saw an ensemble

A horde, of wrinkled plastic bottles

Beside the drain, beneath the weeds,

Clattering and brawling in the breeze.

Diminished as the stars that wane

And sigh in the weary sky

They drifted in never-ending chain

Along the rust and sewage supply:

Ten thousand saw I in a trance,

Glossing their dull in lowly sufferance

The drain beside them was rusted romance; but they

Out-did the oily pool in glee:

A poet could not but be dismay,

In such horrid company:

I stared–and stared–with so much thought

What horrid riches the world to me had brought:

For oft, when on my back I lie

In listless or in depressed head

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the kiss of dread;

Then my heart fills with distant gospel,

And cedes to the call for plastic bottles.

Gold Dusting

Deep within closeted lush green

Sprawling world of intricate lives unseen

Murmured voices chime in still wind

Delicate fingers brushing between kin

One soul above the others

Gold, shimmer, special reward

Clothed with slick viridian growth

A dry flame lifts beyond

Dazzling trail of purple and onyx

Rosy cheeks contrast indigo sky

Cream tendrils of quiet grace

With diligence and pace

Venturing near creature underneath

Violence kept safely sheathed

She extends buzzing hand,

Quavers only at slightest lash,

Then scampers to the familiar in a brilliant flash.