A yellow leaf floats calmly on the surface of a river.
The river, swollen with weeks of rain, has overtopped levees and dikes for hundreds of miles. It has swept away farmhouses and barns, mansions and shacks, townhouses and shops. It has swamped Main Streets in valley after valley and submerged miles of highways and tracks.
It has carried away wealth and poverty, faith and hope, seeds and soil. It has drained off livestock and pets, snakes and beavers, rats and small children. It has broken families and left orphans in its wake.
It has fed thirsty ground, replenished deep aquifers, and guaranteed good harvests for the next seven years. It has cleared the land of the dead, the rotten, the diseased and infested. It has scoured the earth like a broom.
All of this, and still a yellow leaf rides comfortably on its back.
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4 comments:
Biodegradable Man
Languid and still, drifts
Yellow above the vortex,
That swill of electronics
And plastic immortal now
An island in the ocean.
[Disposable Tanka July 5, 2010]
Dr. Mike
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Green
Green is the color
Of each poet’s eye -- envy
Over who has won
The four-leaf clover and pot
Of gold for that laurel crown.
[Disposable Tanka July 5, 2010]
Dr. Mike
Rubix Cube
Abacus broken,
The samurai sulks over
His cardiograms.
Hospital calligraphy
Clash with Chinese throwing stars.
Mind Over Matter
The gypsy sees hope
No matter what the cards say.
Hope’s what people want
And they tip generously
To escape the dragon’s mouth.
The essence of Tao.
Indeed.
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