Swift as a Mushroom

Sunlight on dead leaves;
Bright yellow merges with brown;
Green still holds her own.

 

My barrier bush
Will disappear in winter
Revealing the road.

 

Pine cone on the line,
Its brown mixing with the white;
Road side palette.

 

Dead broken tree trunk
Is held up by its neighbor--
Forest communion.

Standing and growing
Family of deadly mushrooms
Near the empty house.

 

Warm winter's coming,
Fuzzy bear's have told me so.
(They've been wrong before.)

Portal through the trees
Opens on a sunken vale--
Look! But do not tread!

Swift as a mushroom,
Springing up in the shadows--
A house in the woods.

How Swiftly They Pass

 

Sweet sunny morning;
Green and orange leaves shining.
Inside, all is humming.

 

Bright sun is muted
Through the morning yellow leaves--
Illumination.

 

How swiftly they pass,
Mushrooms bright white yesterday,
Dry yellow today.

 

 

On this sun crisp day
Neighbor stops, talks, worries
About the weather.

 

 

With his tail erect
Magic chipmunk on the driveway
Becomes a statue.

Car lights up ahead
Merge gently with the shadows
On the dappled road.

Crossing the wide road
Fuzzy bear journeys slowly
Eight steps at a time.

Sandals--loose gravel,
Annoying combination.

(Always worth the risk.)

 

Substance Becomes Light

Bouncing on the grass
Squirrel pokes his nose in the ground
Then keeps on bouncing.

 

 

 

 

My lawn is mushrooms;
Every morning a new batch.
Supply!  Where's demand?

 

Joggers jogging past,
Pounding from all directions;
Cows keep on chewing.

 

Thin vines and dead leaves
Cover the encased journal
On the old tree stump.

 

Asters and dead leaves
Are tangled in the wire fence
Lying near the tree.

 

Small evergreen tree
Slowly covered by dead leaves
Will be everbrown.

 

Sun hits the tree trunk:
Turns it into a shadow.
Substance becomes light.

 

I watch the mushroom
And the mushroom watches me.
What are we thinking?

 

Still the Pampas Wave

Dim gray and cloudy
Slow winter is creeping in.
Heat's a memory.

Lush leaves face my house;
Dead brown leaves cover the ground--
A late Fall contrast.

It will fall down soon
This ancient half dead tall tree
(Away from my house!)

Yellow milk weed crop
Skeletons of Queen Anne's Lace;
Still the Pampas wave.

 

 

 

A grove of mushrooms
Lights up the newly cut lawn
(Much brighter than grass)

 

Now the red leaves fall
Pastel stars against the brown;
Soft Autumn light show.

 

Two crows conversing;
One waits til the other's through;
Like polite humans.

 

Upside down canoe
Parked at the edge of the woods--
No lakes, no river.

 

Servants of the Wind

Now there are orange
Leaves that glow among the green
In the march of Fall.

 

 Full rich and bushy
Jungles of leaves surround me.
Winter is hiding.

 

Always in motion
Kids next door run, jump and fly--
School is in session.

 

 

Pale yellow, orange;
We called them butter and eggs,
Bloom by the roadside.

 

They keep on falling
Softly and so silently--
Dry leaves of Autumn.

 

 A warning for me:
Road side sign says "Loose Gravel".
My sandals beware!

 

They are still hanging,
Dead brown leaves, on thin tree limbs;
Servants of the wind.

 

 Growing by the road
A wooden musical staff,
Waiting for some notes.