Parkside Girl (Gameday Skate)

Faded jeans,

Dark Home Roy #9

A multi-colored backpack,

Like the kind you’d find in school

Long brown hair with braids adrift 

Out from beneath that old green Rastafarian headwear

Skips from the road up through the hill

Dispersing dewdrops with her steel-tipped toes

On the path she walks the side again

Five steps forward in cyclical succession

Pause.  Observe. Understand.  Spin around.  Breathe and count to 10

This could be everyday…this could become routine to take this all in

Squinted smile on a barefaced pale

She winces as she streamers past the trees

Waving gently to the squirrel within

Up the bark that’s come to life…

Scurrying…scurrying through the disco painted leaf shade light

11 times she’d leap high to sky…like a baby bird’s 1^st real flight,

 On a lark, whimsy free…not caring how soon the night turns dark

It’s in the nature all around…where if one looks, one will be found

The Panthe and the Lion, The Lion and the Stork

A panther spoke to a lion,
Once before the sky routed the summer
away to a land of falling prey
where clouds were poison pills
casting retreads to the sun
allowing the minutes time to run,

And so a lion chose the panther,
To keep close a good companion,
Only through his elusive arch
could the stork safely cross,
away from the rest,
avoiding the cliff,
and the swim below
into the den,
where, if but just once,
he'll become the most regarded in the land,

Enjoy the Stork did his feast,
Never been in company of kings,
Allowed his choice of any and all,
And when the Stork was full and well,
He stood and chose to speak,
He saw the look within the Lion's eye,
He saw the panther lurking beside,
So he painted words so well,
And convinced the Lion he had a son,
But must return to his place,
as the child was not prepared to run,
To which the kingly beast replied,
He knew the day would finally come,
He leaned back and roared in joy,
The tables shook
the goblets quaked,
So filled with joy,
The Lion allowed the stork to run,
For his son this day could wait,

When the bird had left the lair,
The panther knew the trick very well,
And with the tear still in his eye,
The panther could not hurt the Lion's pride,

And so the panther stepped aside,
But knew he had done things right,
Picking the lion as his only friend