Blood
red moon in the depths of night
On
solstice morn takes winged flight
To
reappear upon your bonnet bright
Muted
cries of war and pain
Soldiers,
horses on battlefields slain
Through
snowy fields carmine rivulets stain
Newborn
babes from wombs emerge
White
cloth vermillion hues will purge
Mothers’
placenta—an abandoned dirge
Beneath
ocean foam and form
Cavernous
shadows hide tides from the storm
Stinging
fire anemone tentacles swarm
Hillside
sparkles with crystalline snow
Children
tumble, giggle, lose mittens and glow
Tummies
flat pressed on Radio Flyers – Go!
Red
pierces the day, the night, the dawn
Jolly
peppermint ribbons stigmata drawn
Rubens,
Cézanne capture crimson and brawn
Life
trickles and tickles with mutinous ambition
Irrepressible—straining,
maintaining commission
To
join heaven and earth, bring peace to fruition
All
this you told me with your round scarlet head
Perched
at the feeder grateful to be fed
In
you, celestial desire with innocence wed
~*~
Photo: public domain
A male Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus).
Photo taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ50 in Johnston County, North Carolina, USA.
This poem was written in North Carolina when I resumed poetry readings in 2010 after a long hiatus.
