Bleak Sunlight

A collaborative slow renga written by Fiona Lesley Bennett, Andrea Witzke Slot, Eve Lyons, and Katherine Perry from January-April, 2017

Wild geese streaming in ribbons
across the sky, too many to count
like the women, marching

and bundled in winter coats, knitted hats,
flying together through historic streets.

Branches brush windows,
while sleepers toss violently.
Televisions glow,

the moon glows, lies low in the sky.
The crowd roars with chants and cheers.

A daughter peers through solid glass;
bleak sunlight appears on the swept kitchen floor.
She watches orange fade into white.

The air tepid and full of threat
as day breaks on dark water.

Yellow light spreads gold and purple
soon the sun's angry glare will be here,
we'll play in the ocean.

She chewed the mandarin peel, waiting.
Without paying, she took three more and ran.

A masterclass in initiative, just him
and the chair, the different ways
you could get up out of it.

Leaves decompose, become dirt.
We all have to let go sometimes.

In cupped palms, she cradles an orchid:
not a ghost or impossible-to-find rarity,
but standard white petals promising fertility.

Morning’s milky mist falls soft on worried lands.
Children wake in the flowers, blinking.

Seeds/Spring Gentian

By Andrea Witzke-Slot

Seeds 

Yesterday I wanted to plant flowers.
No. I wanted to plant seeds.

The ground was cold and hard.
A jackhammer was needed.

I threw my kernels over the ground,
Watched them scatter, roll stiffly in the wind.

From my window today, I see birds gather
in the ice-capped air, pecking in frenzy.

Spring Gentian

Yesterday I wanted to plant flowers.
It rained all morning.

I slid my spade into soft soil, dug neat holes.
The sun appeared at my back.

I mauled life into sturdy position,
Plugged the right resources, prayed for May showers.

From my window today, I watch explosions of blue sway in my garden.  

These poems previously appeared in Alba.