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Chimney Smoke

“The Mayor’s Pipe” they called it,
a towering construct which loomed high
over the rustic village
cradled in the valley.

And from time to time
The Pipe would start to smoke
and puff out wisps of incensed smoke
for hours upon end.

The village men would celebrate this
as a sign of luck and fortune.
The village women merely smiled
and kept their secrets to themselves.

Duality

I am of two minds:
one sunshine and one shadow,
the demon and the noble god,
the fertile and the fallow.

As the crow flies

Down whirling eddies
of wicked winds,
across shadow-cast mountains
and eager, hushed valleys,
’til I alight at your window
and find you waiting, hungrily.

Flightless

Their bitter, criticizing words
swung down like clubs and crops and swords
until the blows and cuts and stings
left tatters of what once were wings.

Romance

When pillow sisters
and blood brothers whisper oaths
beneath the may pole,
sweet spring-time fairytales bloom
into full-blown summer dreams.

Crashing

At the end of the day
I flow through the traffic,
rise up the winding staircase
break through the bedroom door
crash upon the sheets
and I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Late

Leisurely he mounts
An iron horse, long-tamed,
To meander through the winding streets
Endless in the morning haze.