-
Ken Peters
THE WARMTH OF THINGS
amongst
the humans is the heartless world
but
this pine is benign against my back
i cannot
fault it for being indifferent
and
dark where a fire has tried to climb
pale
skin at the temples of the jeweler's wife
chewing
her dinner shows off the fine cheekbones
but
she's no threat to average looks
seems
almost plain featured but for decoration
in fact
she is on the rack right now
displaying
his wares
through
a three course meal
she
is never let to finish a sentence
while
out the near window
soundlessly
side of a busy road
a woman
is squating to adjust her pack
and
seems very practiced at doing just that
shoulder
to ground swings it down precisely
using
the curb there to stay clear of the mud
and
swats items into position to reach
something
she wants from the bottom
then
has it
and
stands the pack back up with herself
dancing
its inertia toward the next step
and
scanning for traffic
humps
its weight into gravity limbo
to tighten
the packstraps
so the
load turns tail wind
beam
on billowing in her practical moves
she
seems stoic heroic
woman
calmly making her own way
wind
shakes their reflections
flexing
the glass
trying
to merge the inside woman
with
the outside woman
each
one dimension short of a quorum
this
heaving ponderosa pine
is rooted
in rock here nine miles from town
and
down the trunk telegraphs
the
wind itself
singing
and zinging as on marionette wires
commuting
the stress of every gesture
i have
no apparent duty but to listen in
- Robert
N. Erman
KILN
the sun
a hammer
I am
reforged each morning
the
ocean a retort
I am
washed clean each night
the
air a catalyst
I am
rarefied and exalted
fire
the kiln
I am
liquid raku
thankful
for the white blue flame
- Ken
Peters
"All
is perfect
like
the rose with petals half open
is perfect."
- Summer Music
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