And two more new poems.
By K.B. BALLENTINE.
From Sun to Bone-Light
Golden hue tempts us to the porch.
One last afternoon to gather the light
before autumn closes in.
But sun through hickory
and chestnut oak fooled our eyes.
Though our hands and noses know,
as we note the glow, the appearance
of warmth that isn’t.
Witch alders like burnished gold,
nandina trumpeting their final flowers
know the time. Hummingbirds vanished
last month: now it’s suet for the woodpeckers
and whatever wrens and cardinals remain.
The hum of heaters, the whoosh of passing cars
permeate the afternoon – last gasp of mowers,
coughing blowers revive the story.
Between sight and sound,
a final, indrawn breath before winter growls.
•
Beneath a Cold Moon
—We are saved only by love. – Tennessee Williams
Frost rimes and cracks the waves,
specks of ice churning, spinning
and tossing toward shore.
Like the sparrow fluttering
outside my window, thrashing
wings against its reflection,
the surf whips and batters the air.
When did that chill blow in?
That angry pulsing plunge
into the fissures of each person we pass?
Let the frantic beating blow
across the billows – far past
the shores where we stand, waiting
with candles, memories seething.
Set flame to the icy peaks
that freeze around our feet, tide tugging
us toward the ocean’s liquid heart,
where only love can save us.
•
The Lost Heart
Branches twist in February’s wind,
rain usurped by snow,
dew turning into crystalled coins.
Cardinals color the feeder,
pulse in the gloom – their chirrups
echoing the yard and sage grass
as sun sets. Each tree branch frosted,
the choir of evening descends
into silence. Ice like braille lines
the entrance, cobwebs of moonlight
sifting spirits still tucked in crevices.
Maybe our loss is the miracle.
A shaman somewhere etches names
in the cave of the dead.
♦
KB BALLENTINE is a poet and teacher who loves travel, fencing and Irish step-dancing. Her personal website is here. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and publications, including Atlanta Review, Linnet’s Wings, Crab Orchard Review, Alehouse, Tidal Basin Review, Haight–Ashbury Literary Journal, The Sigh Press, and MO: Writings from the River.
