sullen cloud

sullen puple-gray cloud

instantly white as jagged lightning

lurched behind

whispering relief

a gentle rain first whispering relief

could come if we have undertaken

our part in fulfilling the needs

of our neighbors languishing

in this man-caused drought

but we had not learned to see beyond

our own irrigated lawns and desire

for multiheaded- showers in each

of our marble spa bathrooms

or past the label of ‘hoax’ on climate change

for us to comprehend the world craving

for clean water

we glance at the page of luxury jewelry

rather than the picture of a child in a ditch

hoisting battered plastic drum of water

to carry back a mile or more for his mother

to use in cooking

the sleek magazine prints the ditch and boy

in black-and-white, but the jewelry

in sleek color as it knows what we buy

now is so altered

i cannot now

where always i could

if it was a matter of will

but old age has changed

not only my ability

but my confidence

green yellow

haiku

yellow where once green

persona remade in time

accepting winter

punctuate

it’s national punctuation day

and time to take a look at what

a period or a comma can do

to keep me out

of trouble…

or not

no fruit from my labor

frustration with my computer

when changing my address

on the purchase form triggered

fraud alert at the credit card company

all that time filling out the form

only to have payment declined

arghhhh

but the lady at the fruit company

was finally able to navigate the gift

with a different credit card

not like it used to be

snow up to ten inches

in Florida

below freezing but no rain

or snow in western Oregon

bright sunlight sparkling

off Cascade peaks

was weather ever “normal”

or is every season “not

like it used to be when

I was a kid”?

decisions by the elderly

how to know when heart

and head are tangled within

grief guilt and longing

bouncer

plantations of rubber trees

oozing thick liquid

assumed riches, hard-fought

in jungle’s sweaty labor

illnesses and terrors

but worth it all for wealth

until laboratory synthesis

created material with rubber’s

assets plus close supervision

of production and needed variations

plantations of rubber trees

left unattended in the jungle

by sweaty, malarial-infected

disillusioned get-rich men

re-write

editing is so personal

seeing what is wrong

versus what is other

than i would have written it

which does not respect

the author’s choices or style

ah, the relief and joy

when author and editor

work toward the same goal

weight of time and ice

 weight of time and ice

grinding pebbles into granite

creating geo-scape artistry

on greater-than-human scale

siblings’ memories

our parents changed

in the eight years between

my birth and his

my sibs and i can never

write the same memoir

fat colors

 something more than the pale purple

dense cloudy sky

something about the color of earth

objects themselves

trees, grass—fattened

thicker as though osmosis

had already taken on water

and changed their reflective surface

even before the clouds had dropped

their rain

sky rivers buffeted

our sky rivers buffeted, dislodged

from paths we on earth have come

to expect

changes in our weather from above

and beyond bring snow yet again

in the middle of april

and yet again the knowledge

that, despite our fussing, nature

will do as nature wills

as it weaves the world we live in

noisy, but still unnoticed

 fireworks, noise, splendor

but the new year

like progress itself

slips in so quietly

it is barely noticed

bit by bit, task by task

until we are startled

to see what change has happened

while we busy

doing something else

                        mjNordgren  1/1/2023  N