November 2020
June Crawford Sanders
juneinca@aol.com
Bio Note: I live on the side of a mountain in the Sierra Nevadas in Northern California. A tiny Texas flatlander great-niece asks how do you keep from sliding off. Family, poetry, photographing deer, bobcats, bears, and birds that come to our backyard water fountain, playing piano, and camping are my favorite obsessions. My poems have been published in What the Elephant Said to the Peacock by Dempsey and Windle, UK, a Haiku Society of America Members’ Anthology, and in a tiny Poems-For-All book published by Robert Hansen, San Diego.

Sharps & Flats

Writing the old address cautiously
I see it's still full of sharp edges

the gravel road where I skinned
my knees learning to ride a bike

the prickly pine where lived
a squirrel I foolishly shot

steep back steps down which 
I tumbled splitting my knee

hasty decisions that cut
the ties binding me to home 

one-finger songs played on the chipped
black keys of our ancient upright piano

I dropped my dolly in the dirt
I asked my dolly if it hurt...

Enchantment

Be careful dancing on rooftops, Gerry, do you 
have your fiddle but then Rome isn't burning tonight,
is it. Glass slippers may break and I wonder if
Cinderella might have been happier barefoot. 
My fingers are bleeding from trying to spin
straw into gold - maybe pain becomes bearable 
if we live long enough. I am here tying dreams 
to tumbleweeds. Delilah tied her lover to a chair, then 
she cut off all his hair; it evens out - Pan played his pipes
and seduced the very moon goddess from the sky
and fireflies still dance in Missouri at midnight.

A Charm for Growing

Leaf of Aspen, Oak, and Willow
Turning gold upon the hill. O
Sweet and blessed time of year 
To wander free, now far, then near, to
 
Bark of Aspen, Oak, and Willow
Dappled white, brown, yellow 
Protect the spark that lies within 
Til Sun returns and life awakens
 
Root of Aspen, Oak, and Willow
Deep within the earth, now fallow
Pause for rest before the growing
Ours the test we pass by knowing
 
Secret of Aspen, Oak, and Willow
Stand tall and straight, yet bend with wind
That blows and bows a humble heart
To fashion, guide, instruct the artful
 
Life of Aspen, Oak, and Willow
Midas-touched upon the hill, tho
Mournful, long, this season of rest
Keep face to the East. And in the West
 
Golden Aspen, Oak, and Willow 
Glow and bless our hills of snow
While Arctic breath shakes leaves asunder
And hope of Spring marks time with wonder.
©2020 June Crawford Sanders
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell him or her. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is the beginning of community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL