The Heart Moth

The Heart Moth

There was

a heart that hatched

out a moth that landed

on my mouth, to burn; burn and fly

and die.

Too long

I've waited for my lips to cool,

to live, and missed the moth

because it was

my heart.

~July 2016

posted for    real toads

Kerry's Mini-Challenge: Micropoetry 

Process Note: This is a cinquin, a short, usually unrhymed poem of twenty-two syllables in five lines arranged 2, 4, 6, 8, & 2 per line.  In the second stanza, I have reversed the order.

Images: Queen of the Night costume design, 1922, by Leon Batsk,   Fair use.

Moth, 1900,  by Albrecht Bierstadt,  Public domain.

Portrait Of An Old Monkey

Portrait Of An Old Monkey

Monkey

with a white nose

has rages like matchflames

in a spelunker's cathedral,            

sudden                

then dead, blown as quick as they're lit;

has joys small as gumdrops,        

all swallowed whole

too fast.

Monkey

drops her red hat

in gold light's lost orange trees;

sees amethyst twilight turn black...

forgets.

~February 2013

posted for   real toads

Sunday Mini-Challenge: The Cinquin

Marian Kent of runaway sentence turns her considerable talents with the cinquin into a workshop where we can explore the many variations on this tight, five-line, syllable-counting form. 

Process Notes: This poem is composed of a Butterfly Cinquin (2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2) followed by a traditional five line cinquin (2-4-6-8-2)

Image: Portrait of a Monkey, by George Stubbs, 1774
Public Domain, via wikipaintings.org

City of the Mind

City of the Mind

Give me

a  page of night's

black stardazzle,  splash

across some buttermilk moon, and

you win.

Boxes  

physical, imaginary;

so messy carving off

parts so people 

will fit.

October 2011

Posted for    Sunday Mini-Challenge     at with Real Toads

This is my attempt at a mirror cinquain. (one cinquain of lines of 2,4,6,8 and 2 syllables  and its reverse.) Kerry O'Connor will explain it all to you at the link above.

Image: Photo of The Museum Magritte, Brussels, By Michel wal 
(Own work) via Wikimedia Commons