Saying Everything
I hear you whispering there
Earsplitting twin engines split the sky blue
saying everything saying nothing – crickets chirp by the window
I hear you whispering there
Leaf blower, edger, mower slashes my breath
and sentences from my book – saying everything saying nothing
O hawk
O dove
O meadow lark
I hear you there whispering
Into the song I sing to my cat
O soft fur on my chest
O rubbing your ear makes your foot squinch
O the sound of your motor running
O saying everything saying nothing
Just For A While
There is always a way
when the key doesn’t fit and the windows are locked,
You can stand it, just for a while
As roughened bark trolls the tree
and flowers cease to color the light
There is always a way
If tomorrow stretches weary eyes
and lurks frozen on bent knee
You can stand it, just for a while
After friends flicker like lightning bugs
and winter nights shield droplets of warmth
There is always a way
As smiles trickle from cracked hearts
and lay flat under noiseless feet
You can stand it, just for a while
When you turn eighty, turn ninety, one hundred
propped by tilting shadows feathery and low
There is always a way
You can stand it, just for a while
Dry
It’s too dry
The trees need water now
Collect my tears
Jean Krasnansky Thompson lives in Boulder, Colorado. Her fiction has been published in Tangled Locks, The Boulder Weekly’s Annual 101 Word Fiction Contests and Prairie Times. Non-fiction pieces have been published in Women’s Edition and Vegetarian Journal. She enjoys the activity of hanging out with friends. No agenda. Totally non-productive. Also known as goofing off.
