SUNRISE ECHO
Below the horizon the sun
reaches up to touch the clouds
once grey now brilliant
orange and red sands
splashing against the sky.
Then calm, fading
back to grey as the sun
emerges from below
in a hemisphere orb
scaring darkness
into stretched shadows
longing to merge again.
But patience…
Beneath gathers,
extends over the ground
toward a coaxing moon;
the sun descends with red
scratches on jet contrails,
and orange-cloud pools
flow into the night ocean,
echo in abandoned shell.
BRIDGE MUSINGS
I want to be an old wooden bridge
with slats missing, broken in dangling
pairs in mid-air dive suspension.
I want to creak or crack warnings
that never materialize
or maybe they might.
Creaks and cracks tickle my joy.
I might sacrifice a slat
to test a hiker’s reactions.
Oh, crap! They hung on.
Whoo hoo! You’re gone.
Bye, bye. It’s never my fault.
I’m an old wooden bridge;
I can do what I want!
GRASS MUSIC
A field of brown grass
sways in the wind; many girl
concert-goers near swoon
close to the rock-star singer.
Final wisps of smolder
smoke spiral into the sky;
dreams dissipate
after the blaze burnoff.
Last night’s snowfall
splotches the field
in black-and-white motif;
Holstein cow ghosts rest
in herd mentality awaiting
milking time in the barn.
Spring rain tamps ash
into the ground quenching
thirst for green sprouts
to slice upwards separate
then clumps conjoining
into a field renewed;
daughters and mothers
sway to the music transmitted
in wind rustling through
air floating across the field.
FENCE GAMES
Down the wooden fence line
rails hold hands as posts
yell to the fence across the field,
“Red Rover, Red Rover, send
Lucy right over!”
RAINBOW BIRD
Two birds glide
through the waterfall’s
mist arcing
rainbow colours
separating one side
from the other.
Birds soar
through the droplets
beaded on feathers
shimmering iridescent
reflections.
Diane Webster‘s work has appeared in Old Red Kimono, North Dakota Quarterly, New English Review, Studio One and other literary magazines. She had micro-chaps published by Origami Poetry Press in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Diane has been nominated for Best of the Net and a Pushcart. She was a featured writer in Macrame Literary Journal and WestWard Quarterly. Her website is: www.dianewebster.com
You can find more of Diane’s work here on Ink Pantry.