ROSE PETAL
The heart is like a rose petal
Velvety and fragrant
So soft and thin but not brittle
That will bruise but does not tear
When grasped between thumb and forefinger
The veins will burst and bleed
Leaving no longer God’s pathways
But your fingerprint
THE LEAF
In an autumn on a windy day
In the dancing forest’s hall
A leaf was wrenched from a tree
Before t’was meant to fall
Its borders had darkened crimson
But its veins throbbed yet with green
And the life that was within it still
Stumbled to the realm terrene
A fragment from a broken soul
That had started in a tree
Blew about the blustering world
And it found its way to me
BUGS
Bugs are inevitable
They crawl on many feet
They dance with a thousand legs
Bugs will always be there
Inside and outside
Whether you like them
Whether you don’t
Under a rug, behind the bark
Some bite
Others dwell passively in a corner
Living and dying while you look way
Never knowing it was there
Some sting
Bugs
Some fly, some crawl
Why are they even here at all?
For all the kittens and puppies and children
Who have neither a string nor a ball.
JUMPING SPIDER
(Pelegrina Proterva)
Once when I was sitting on a bench to read a book,
A spider came and sat himself beside me
I wouldn’t have noticed him but he had a look
That seemed as if he could see right inside me.
See, spiders don’t behave like this
Nursery rhymes aside
If they ever notice you they normally run or hide
(or just sit there hoping you actually see them),
But this one came to sit with me and looked into my eyes
Then jumped into my lap and began to climb.
He had such a sense of urgency it seemed a shame to me
Not to help achieve his goal, whatever that might be,
So I offered him my hand
And he seemed quite pleased to have it,
For jumped into my palm as if it were a habit.
After that, he turned around and looked at me again,
All I think he really wanted was to find a friend
“That was dangerous,” I cautioned him.
“If it were anyone but me,
You would have long ago been squashed! And it seems a funny thing
To risk a life just to make a friend
Which I might not even be.”
The little spider cocked his head, just like my dog at home
“Well, of course I am, but still, you can’t be all alone,
Of all the places in the world, which you are free to prowl,
Why not be with another spider instead of me right now?
Or if jumping spiders are solitary,
Which I think they are,
Then why go against your nature
Which has led you so far?”
And the jumping spider looked at me
And so I just looked back
We sat like that a little while,
And delved into each other’s eyes.
It didn’t take long before I began to have the suspicion
That though he was a spider
He could still enjoy good fiction,
So I read to him from my book,
(It was Sherlock Holmes).
I don’t know how much he understood
But he must have liked the tones,
Because he stuck around
Until the book was done.
Then I set him on the bench
Where this had all begun.
I said goodbye and took my leave,
I think I left him glad,
Though I never saw him again,
I often I wish I had.
Maybe what he did was dangerous,
But I think it was good.
We may have fewer enemies
If we greet with amiability
Instead of animosity.
