Before the Rain

Day Eleven – 2020 Creativity Project

This birdcage is at least fifty years old, I had a dusty blue parakeet in it when I was very young. We had birds until Mom decided they were nasty. The mess did not fit her fastidious ways.

These short poems are all individuals. None of them is directly connected. Some were written at different times today. Some in my journal, some at the keyboard as I stood here in front of the screen. They are tanka, and of course, a lone haiku.

Some days hold torrents
In a loose embrace, then let
The sky-bound tears fall;
Sympathy for hearts broken
By losses too great to bear.

I could cage myself
Hide all the feelings away,
But emotions tend
To lead me often in life,
I am tender, edge of knife.

Secret reasons why
I keep trying to catch you
With a picture, line,
But you fast escape the ties
I might employ to bind you.

My heart breaks again
With an ache shot through and through;
The long loss of you.

I almost began
To hope for the future again,
But then I recalled
How the fires seared my skin
And things became ashes then.

Pieces together
Fit the pattern of quiet
Built on peaceful days
When all we needed, we found,
Within one another bound.

The rain came, bucketfuls at once, and walking the dogs was a waste of time. We only got soaked. I did walk awhile before alone with the Sony camera. It is nice to photograph whatever I decide.

I hope, as a prompt, you will create something lovely, and with love. All of us need more kindness, comfort, care.