Creative expressions is a space for local poets and writers to share their work. Creative expressions is edited by Richard Schmidt and Diana Liebe. For information or to submit your original work, e-mail rvschmidt2@gmail.com.
Welcoming Fall
Leona M. Butts
Why, oh why do the gleaming-white birds fly
And beautiful pink clouds go floating by
So early in the cool morning?
And why doesn’t the mockingbird sing?
Life is quiet and soft in September
As we welcome another fall to remember.
The trees are dropping beautiful crisp leaves
And people are wearing longer sleeves.
We adjust reluctantly to fall’s new timing
With hours of darkness climbing.
So white birds fly to your winter home
As dawn’s pink clouds turn snowy white
and land-bound I continue to roam.
The Bones of Water
Cody Eden
The code trickles along
bit by shivering bit.
It’s like snowfall. Like
calcification.
We feel postponed,
or perhaps
we dwell in the moment
of about-to-be.
Waiting requires no
practice, no skill.
Patience is difficult,
but waiting
is automatic. Be,
and you will wait.
The world as viewed
from the backseat
when you are very small:
black power lines
against bone sky;
the fluttering nerves of
Edison tying towns
together. It is Christmas,
and you are awaited
where the power lines lead
by sad-eyed relatives, white
divinity on paper plates,
a ham in the oven
breathing salt—
Salt is our
common denominator.
It permeates our
food and our bodies,
covers our roads.
At the edges of the
lake, the salt gathers
and compounds into fields
of white crystal.
It resembles the skeleton
of snow, the bones
of water.
Other things one can do
with no practice:
growing hair, falling down,
moaning softly in the night.
