Amputated Moon

Outside the window, the hawk sits

wing feathers rising and falling in a breeze

he has not answered the goose’s singular cry

                south—south!

The Japanese maple has lost its leaves

to the shortening of the day’s light

and fatal wind gusts blowing in cold and brisk

                always from the north.

The oaks in the back of the neighborhood

are black with starlings—fluttering and calling

they greet the dim dawn

                rising in the east.

Here in this space, the windy chaos

finds a home bringing its restlessness

creeping under doors and windows

                calling me west.

The compass points are laid out

a dream mosaic of past and future

cornerstones of journeys lost and gained

                where to from here?

Migration is in my bloodline—

ocean crossings and westward expansion

my people are the ones with walking shoes

                going everywhere but here.

Pamela Olson, 11/30/09

For One Single Impression’s prompt,

“migration”.

Come slowly—

Eden lies behind us

in the dusk dimmed by tears

slowly the pathway winds

along the barren hillsides

Come slowly—

Eden is forever lost

dawn is waiting

caught and bound by the horizon

drops of light fall on your face

Come slowly—

Eden is simply a story now

you and I will find a river

plant our stolen seeds along its banks

and birth ourselves and Paradise again

Pamela Olson, 11/15/09

For One Single Impression’s prompt

“reincarnation” and from a line by

Emily Dickinson, “Come slowly—Eden!”

from “The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson”

edited by Thomas H. Johnson; Poem #211

the sun’s opulence slides through the sky

staining and pockmarking the maple leaves

sycamores flaunt bright smooth trunks

while they throw down their leaves– littering the ground

the river flows full against its red banks

a summer of rainy days – downpours and drizzles

but the afternoon sunlight cannot lie

it cuts sharply through the atmosphere

autumn arrives along the end of the Appalachians

stuttering with starts and stops

warm days and cool nights

shaped by a southern latitude

Pamela Olson, 11/7/09

Photo – Black Warrior River in Demopolis, Alabama