Waiting

Everywhere i look i see a poem waiting:
Kentucky Wonder Beans
the muddy garden shoes by the door waiting
for my feet
to deliver me to a place of peace and solitude
where peppers bow and dance on heavy laden stalks.
Arugula sings as it grows — Taste me Taste me —
and beans swing through their jungle playing
hide and seek with the leaves;

the two flannel shirts shrugged off in haphazard heapsOkra
on the chair in the mudroom
— his and hers — sleeves entangled, plaids clashing,
waiting for him to say (In the cool of the evening)
Have you seen my flannel shirt?
and she will know exactly where it is;

the okra on the counter, cut into symmetrical flowers,
waiting to be made into thick aromatic okra stew.
A friend brought it —
His wife said Don’t bring me any more okra.
I love okra, he grinned.
Maybe i won’t plant so much next year;

the glossy green peppers piled precariouslybasket of peppers
in the wicker basket — waiting their turn to be
sliced diced and frozen for winter’s
friday night fiestas;

the dark brown just-plowed garden dirt
drinking up the rain
waiting for the creamy garlic cloves
in their smooth purply skins
to spend the winter buried
in the snow-covered earth;
freshly plowed

the lime green clock on the kitchen wall
bought at Walmart for $3.99
ticking away the seconds minutes hours
ticking away summer into fall
ticking away seasons into years — waiting
for someone to notice minute and hour hands
colliding with dizzying disorienting
speed.
kitchen clock

Ordinary Magic

still life
Magic                         Magic                         Magic
bedazzles                     enchants                      embraces
the                           the                           the
still                         still                         still
life                          life                          life
only if                       only if                       only if
our                           our                           our
eyes                          ears                          hands
are                           are                           are
open                          attuned                       free
to                            to                            to
see.                          hear.                         hold.

If our                        If our                        If our
eyes                          ears                          hands
are                           are                           are
closed                        plugged                       filled
to the                        with the                      with the
colors                        sounds                        stuff
that                          of                            we
surround                      our                           cling
us                            own                           to
there                         choosing                      there
are                           we                            is
no                            miss the                      no
magic                         magic                         magic
prisms                        of                            touch in
reflected                     someone                       finding
on our                        else's                        real
souls.                        song.                         gold.

sunflower

This is another poem written for Monna McDiarmid’s online poetry workshop Poet Laureate of your own Life