they question motives
as all good scientists should
will their stems sun-stretch?
be the begonia
is this year’s inspiration
its difference is clear
not heart-shaped wither
soil-sensitive to live
pretty, yes, but weak
mother-in-law tongues
that survive a hundred years
don’t bend toward the sun
but my begonia?
a gift given before Spain?
it lives beyond dreams
be the begonia
not the wanton bamboo sprout
the sun seeks your strength
wait lists should weigh this
all on a sixth-grader’s back
the weight of waiting
but beauty beckons
historic remodel wows
door to her future
hot springs aquifer
sulphur carved what man could not
nature’s history
My View:
infesting nightmare
day lost to money, combs, baths
laundry for a week
Their View:
forever children
they compete for who has more
cheer to share a bed
Our View:
an experience
shared across generations
our everyday life
trees don’t grow on beaches
and they shouldn’t be here
eighty years old
stacked up along the sand
a domineering presence
of the shade i crave
it is June now
and cotton floats in the air
in and out of our hair
our mouths, our pieces of food
a dreamy landscape
of seeds starting anew
i sit for hours
as lyrics drown out
the blue-collar Bud-drinking
daytime neighbors
i could sit all day
my cottonwood Colorado
a dreamy landscape
of all i will leave behind
soon we will breathe
the salty seascape
there will be no trees
only a faulty umbrella
unable to withstand wind
no cotton bleeding with life
no comparison to this life
and will my girls
sassy as ever in their new bikinis
remember what it was like
in the cottonwood Colorado
of their youth?
or immerse in a
languagefoodculture
that blends together
in a different dreamy landscape?
so icily cold it will burn off your skin
CO^2 bubbles over from beaker to tin
it skips a phase, a miracle of matter
one moment solid, one moment the latter
i wish i could take off the gloves that protect
run my fingers over this offbeat object
but i must stand aside as the gas seeps out
subliming my liquid, it fills me with doubt
i will never quite understand science eight
when i took it last i’d too much on my plate
now it is beautiful in this novel light
depose and sublime, our matter takes flight
trees are like humans
she says
they take forever to grow
they start small
when they’re grownups
they don’t grow anymore
they stay in one place
i want to tell her
they’re trapped by roots
taunted by wind
pelted with precipitation
they never stop growing
you’re right
i say instead
knowing that
how she sees the world
could change by morning
and i should cherish
how she sees it today.
i can’t see
the environmental impact
of the roads
ski areas
and mines along the way.
only the blue sky
long absent
longingly awaited
the sun hot on my skin
waterfalls pouring
from every crevice
of Rocky Mountain rock
and snow still standing
obstinately against all predictions.
i will take this pain in my muscles
to bed with me
as i listen to the roaring river
and try to remember
this perfect planet
we’re destroying
but for now
for today
i am blinded by blue.
i want to be outside of the cloud,
to see the silvery circle of sun
touching the beauteous palm of Earth,
to float above everything below me,
to let the raindrops fall from my wisps
of Heaven-sent dewy collections,
to release within my realm of realization
every bit of darkness that keeps me
here inside this churlishly cold cloud.
If Earth really is a Slinky
as a geologist might say
then we’re as small as a pinkie
on Earth’s hand of plates that sway.
Zooming in first are primary P waves
try to beat 225 miles per hour!
earthquakes move in with S waves
secondarily destructing a rocky shower.
If you like the ocean you’ll love to meet Rayleigh
who’ll churn and roll you like the tide coming in
Love’s side to side shaking takes the hands of Rayleigh
collapsing buildings and causing the world to spin.
When an earthquake occurs, who is at fault?
plates move together when pressure mounts
just imagine a shaker full of salt
breaking Earth’s crust as the mantle surmounts
Superman saved the San Andreas Fault
a strike-slip fault along the west coast
where boundaries slide in angry assault
he pushed up the crust without a boast!
In normal and reverse faults, you’re vertical
normal plates diverge and tension gets weak
reverse plates collide with a crack horizontal
forcing compression that leaves Earth bleak.
Under the sea reverse faults thrust up
tsunamis from earthquakes worse than on land
the plates dive under–you might say subduct
going back into the palm of Earth’s hand.
You may think Earth is as hard as a rock
but geologists tell you it’s more like elastic
rebound theory stresses a fault that’s locked
friction and energy cause a quake that’s fantastic.
If Earth really is a Slinky
as a geologist might say
human beings are quite dinky
in the cycle of plates that sway.
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