To Each His Own

Those ducks must not have 

liked the lilting offering

of their lofty friends

because they quacked a few jokes

before they waddled away.

                                                                                      JDG

Body Language

Toad and cat must have had a lover’s spat.

Hour after

hour toad

watched for

signs

of

a change

of heart as

cat sat, back turned,

resolute, behind that thin wall of glass.

                                                                                                             JDG

Seeing

Feeling unseen.

Walking off steam.

~

A butterfly lands

on the path before me.

~

Am I acting like

a blooming idiot?

~

I laugh.

Sight’s restored.

                                                    JDG

The Grandentity Speaks

“Maybe,” I said,

“the toad that comes

to our door each night

is a prince in disguise.”

Grandentity didn’t miss a beat.

“I’m enough of a prince myself..

I’d rather have the toad.”

                                                                   JDG

 

A Small Infusion

Those tiny yellow

flowers, undaunted by heat,

inspire me as

I walk, mindful of my wish

the weather were otherwise.

                                                                   JDG

An Evening With Carol Burnett

As laughter filled our

throats and shook our bellies, we

met on the solid

ground of connection and checked

our differences at the door.

                                                                                     JDG

Heat Soaked

These heat soaked days take me back

to my first days of teaching. It was late

August in newly integrated Alabama,

pre-airconditioning. I was twenty seven.

Suddenly a fight broke out between two guys,

one white, one black. It was the end of the day.

I had had it. I stormed over, pulled them apart,

and yelled, “Stop it. Just stop it.” A stunned silence

filled the room as they sat back down. The silence

grew even stronger when I added,

“You just have to understand.

I simply do not do well in heat.”

That class never gave me any more trouble,

but from then on, even in the cold of winter,

one of them would ask how I was doing in heat.

                                                                                                                                                                                           JDG

 

 

An Encounter To Ponder (illustrated by grandentity, Samwise)

For a while now,

each evening

a brown toad

hops up to

our sliding glass door

and peers in.

Every evening

our cat Murphy

waits for him.

She does not

cry or paw

at the door.

She just sits

 and peers back.

What if we humans

met those different

from us with

 equal curiosity?

                                                                                                                                                                   JDG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each Day

Life invites us to

its grand sing-a-long even

if we can’t carry a tune.

                                                               JDG