The Literary Review
CALIFORNIA-ITALY
The setting sun glows orange beyond the terraced hills
For a moment I feel I am in Tuscany
The red roofed houses climbing towards the darkening sky
The balmy breeze ripples the lake
Where the ducks float past
The boys tossing a ball in the fading light
A couple talking close on the grass
The Mediterranean here
Evoking the one far away,
GEESE AND GOSLINGS
Goslings stumbling after each other on unsteady feet
Closely watched by parental geese
Herding their young charges down the beach
Farther back an older goose surveying the scene
Making sure the goslings’ way is clear and clean
A passage suited for a goosenecked queen
Nothing in between for those babies if you please.
HUMMINGBIRD
She flew right up to my head as I dreamed in the warm spa
Her wings were a blur above her green and gray body
She hovered for a few seconds
And then flew straight to the fence covered with honeysuckle blossoms
She delicately drank from a dozen flowers with her long pointed bill
Hovered undecidedly, circled my head, flew into the limitless blue sky
And was gone.
FEAR
Should I be afraid
That the world will end
When the sky is blue with wispy clouds
And the cool breeze rises
As the sun sets behind the houses
The night comes abruptly
The stars patterned in the dark sky
Two bright planets Jupiter and Saturn
Glow steadily in the east
The milky way shows faintly
Trailing across the sky
Should I be afraid as night follows day
Darkness will give way to light
Everything seems all right
Yet I am consumed with fear.
