Anger

Words that spit fire,

like dragons

eatin’ up sweet lava,

inferno’s rhythm

playin’ my song.

You know, the one

I tried to play for you

before I was denied

the opportunity.

Flames levitate,

giving way

to vicious lies.

I breathe in,

wait to exhale

and spew my poison,

hate-infused declarations

created from pain.

My tongue is singed now,

and not easily held.

© Suzanne Saxon, 2013

Fire-breathing Dragon
Frontispiece to chapter 12 of 1905 edition of J. Allen St. John's ''The Face in the Pool''
Published 1905
from Wikimedia Commons

Is This Your Baby?

Brake lights on the red sports car flash on, off, on. 

It creeps slow enough to see, 

steers around, then is away.

Two small brown dogs 

are dancing on the blacktop.

A baby stands watching,

barefoot, by himself, and beaming at his friends.  Then he wobbles forward on unsteady legs. 

Without a thought, the stranger child is in my arms.

Furious and wild, I climb to the nearest house and find a man in the yard with his son. 

Is this your baby?

Eyes roll. Never seen it before. Probably belongs to them up the road. They're no good. 

I refuse to walk the gravel road, and instead struggle up through fields of tall summer grass that slices my legs and trips my feet, and gives me time to feel.  He's in just a diaper and a short stained t-shirt. I feel his frightened limbs cling, his round belly, his quick young heart. He rests his furrowed brow on my shoulder and whimpers "Ma."

I try to breathe calm into him. We'll find her. Don't worry. 

Far up the hill I can see the little house with the back door slid open. 

© Laura Seale, 2013

Woman Carrying a Baby
1804 print from Wikimedia Commons 

Distant Thunder

 It

                               comes

                   quietly at first

                barely sensed in the

               darkening ocean of sky,

                 a predator stalking its prey,

                      just audible distant rumbles of energy,   

       foreboding gray waves of sound, enter ears and
    roll over and through one’s wakened consciousness,

       agitated electrons’ full bass exploding in deep

              resonant voice of nature’s power and

                 presence, demanding recognition

                    that dominion beyond man

                             continues to

                                 rule

      © William Vollrath, 2013

Lightning over Las Cruces, New Mexico
USAF photo by Edward Aspera, Jr.
from Wikimedia Commons

Fish

A fish was swimming in a pond.

I saw it with my eyes.

I'd never seen a fish before

That wasn't with French fries.

© Joyce Broughton, 2013

Photo by Ewan Munro from London, UK
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons