Winter Smiles

veins of starbursts slip among treesfondling morning’s warming cheeksbrown leaves emerge as golden spotswhile two fawns seek their lost dots

The Earth Has Feelings Too

silence is an earless solitary creaturewithout words alone in the damp eye of dusk a red clock balances barren time evenif its long arm is short and bluebirds boast words fly back to you like a memoryof winds blowing in circles catching leaves hummingbirds hover backward whencherished souls like white doves rise to heaven love…

Autumn Veil

raspberry birthmark rolls from under my nosestarlings move as one, painting a canvas vastcold am I in red silk, my arms hug one anothershining in the light, I mold a small quilt of youorange, red, and ginger a kiss of fall’s bequestjubilation rides me on her ornate celebratory veiluntil winter blows her gust and bares…

No One Is Noticing

Photograph and poem by Joni Caggiano September 8, 2021 red hat on an arrogant rooster crowingcrickets frantically rub spiny legs spinning talesturtles crawl along like tourists with too much baggageblue jays sneak seeds released by a pair of artistic squirrelstwin milkweed plants sigh, missing the fading monarch caterpillarsyellow jackets stinging lawnmowers, confused in an insect…

God’s Armor

within vaporous evenings, I walk many placespeering at menacing eyes of half faces unmuzzled are voices that scream at the nightpeeling my skin in search of what’s right times resembling a tainted vicious algae bloomwicked demons escaping from their tomb the full armor of God is my comfort and shieldmy soul sanguine as a fertile…