she sits there
her face all painted
a glistening snowball white
with fire red lips
and eyes
green and intense
with pale pink around them
wearing that long black gown
versace perhaps?

The sky was frosted
With twirls of cream
Orange confections
With Cool Whip streams
Swirls of cherry mixing in
Yellow lights diving
Into a tropical blend
A Sunbeam mixer
Turned up high

You hold the World in your hands…
With the touch of a button you view
Elephants and lions and zebras
Or, koala bear and kangaroo.

A quick flick of a finger
And other images fill your room;

Slowly
every motion a pricking pain,
nothing to live for
nothing to gain
all things right blown away
carried by the south wind,
all things wrong made true
how can I want your love

oh break out the clackers
and your fuzzy knee highs
put on your big hats now
that tickle all the skies!

it's time to get fancy
so brassy and so bold
time for the big hoedown

Wind rustling through eternity's acres
In a pastel land of green and shade
Spirits of the woods on quiet paths
Move with the breeze, into dark recesses

How many ways do you have
To show me you care?
The way you trace my lips with your fingers
The way you twirl and mess with my hair,
The way you stroke my cheek
With the back of your hand,

When I die

let me lay

beside you

in fields among fertile ground

where herbs will flourish

all around

and

the rosemary’s

sweet aroma will

call to mind

days spent

A beautiful day, a beautiful girl
A door opens, in her beautiful world...
A breath is lost, a chest she holds,
words can't escape, she takes a sit,
Water fills eyes,tissue she grabs...

She was the reason he couldn’t sleep,
In a fretful frenzy he paced his room;
In his palm her picture he did keep,
He recalled her face, her sweet perfume.

Scents of roses and sandalwood

I am not concerned about the jobless
But I am concerned about the hopeless

I am not concerned about the cash
But I am concerned about the stash

I see nothing of the stars or the moonlight:
He is my sickness tonight-
One damp patch on my body, one eye against the light.

Somewhere inside my wings beat furiously

i've often said
if i could just see you
one more time
i could somehow make
everything all right
it's been a while
the better part of a decade
and now here you are
in your favorite dress

The sun rises but I don't surface
The light shines but I don't grow,
The dark comes but I don't emerge
The years go on, sun, wind, snow
Seasons change, things happen
But I don't move on

Those Soldiers
© Linda R. O'Connell

They’ve earned their stripes.

Those damp beach towels on a summer night

Lined up at ease along the fence

A scooped bowl
spilling rich, golden soup
deep burgundy swirls
trailing from a dipped finger
dotting pink, hazy sprays
randomly around
magnifying the horizon
the sun clearly setting down,

Delicate petals of peppermint and lace
Dangle from stems with wings of grace

Gilding each breeze like miniature birds
A sunlit aviary blossoming without words

Monsieur Ozzie dabbles in life
He is a master of hearing strife
With his little black mustache
And his tilted French beret
He invites me to bark each day
He tugs at his mustache

Rows of strawberries extend across the field.
Men and women hunched over
peering into the plants
divining for the most succulent berries.
Children find the juiciest and in their mouth they go.

Hurt has two paths to follow,
“In” or “Out” of you.
Depending on its origin,
the how, the when, the who.

Can’t always see it coming,
by mistake or from a sin.