Thursday, November 18, 2010

1850 HITCHING POSTS

1850 HITCHING POSTS

Hitching posts line
cobblestone streets.
Awnings.... open - close
to brick, reveals iron floating
in air, near entrances as
proprietors lean
against brick facades.
Roads twist, turn
between blooms on
a dogwood tree.

At Center Street a
wooden box, reads
deposit trash.
A horse, upset. . .
swings a wooden wagon
upside down.
Youths in knickers,
run to fetch
fruit, bouncing on
uneven ground.

A proprietor stares
as the horse - defecates
in front of his property -
knowing summer heat
will keep his front door
closed -
until he, makes
piles inside the iron bucket
clearing the air, clearing his
space –
it might be a quiet
day.

Nancy Duci Denofio
all rights reserved

Thursday, November 11, 2010

WHEN DARKNESS COVERS THE MOUNTAIN

WHEN DARKNESS COVERS THE MOUNTAIN

We must sleep as a sun slips behind
our mountains to the north -
as if time is light and dark.

We must hope for dreams at night -
dreams which pull me up and over our
mountain, into another space and time.

Here the sky is blue - although below
a black sky hovers over land - drenched
by a blast of showers; four inches Mama
told me.

Mama, she doesn't know I am - in a new world
where I can play in light - leaving darkness
of my past - she, doesn't know...

Against the color blue MaMa would be smiling
but, not every day - she would feel yellow
here with sunshine below her -

Because it is here where I need nothing
but my soul to lead me - my lost friends to
smile and show me, teach me what MaMa lost
in time forgot to do.

Here I can protect - be kind, and recall only
what brought happiness - what brought me
closer to those I had seen in darkness.

Our mountains in daylight - I return to wet
fields behind our home to see a sun begin
to rise to my east between two mountains.

Now the rain is gone - people mill around to
begin a new day and I am happy - I smile
to feel their love - no matter what I knew -

And, tonight when I slip away from darkness -
I will grow stronger soaking up the colors
to carry in my heart - back home.

Nancy Duci Denofio
all rights reserved