Who Chooses the Music (Day 481)

My cat is a tiger lily, 

wild and bright.

Vivaldi is his kryptonite.

To get him into bed at night,

I turn on The Four Seasons.

My dog is innocent 

as a daisy.

Bach settles her 

when she feels crazy. 

Sheep safely grazing 

make her lazy.

She finds sonatas pleasing. 

Sweet music soothes

the savage beast,

so I’ve collelcted quite a feast

of Beethoven, Hydn, and Liszt,

for pets who need appeasing. 

Who needs another reason?

(c) 2018, by Hannah Six

Moonscape (Day 401)

The artist's fingers seek and find  squelched

deep inside his rumpled linen coat 

the lawyer’s letter (signature required)  

growing damp and crumpled  there

he stands and draws his few visitors toward 

the glass   chilled by cold drafts tugged helplessly

into thin indentations   where beyond 

crackled windows   a golden moonscape glows  

a leaf grows here   a twig dries there  lizards 

lounge companionably   trying to warm their skin

in watery sunlight  requiring nothing more than 

an opportunity to taste the apple-scented air

(c) 2018, by Hannah Six

Image: Sahara Desert (wislamos/Pixabay)

Cat Haiku (Day 369)

Beloved bittersweet

Enchantingly velutinous 

This bewhiskered bundle

(c) 2018, by Hannah Six

Note to worrywarts (like me): Charley played Muse today. He is perfectly fine! 

Angel (Day 359)

Hands flower heat expands

Mist annoints an oatmeal angel

One poised dewdrop succeeds

Sirens call joy children pout

Suddenly brown petals play

Torn committees flutter

Green shadows tax the humid wind

Nearby frogs are chiding

(c) 2018 by Hannah Six 

Image: pixel2013/Pixabay

Serengeti Love Song (Day 357)

Girraffes can be

terribly romantic, 

intimate with 

the nuances of love. 

Until I met you,

eyelashes melting 

in the sub-Saharan rain,

I lived for years  

doubting whether 

this was true.

Yet there you were,

velvet nose

buried in sweet acacia,

ossicones gold with pollen,

the mighty thrumming

of your powerful heart 

like a distant drum,

luring me.

I longed to nuzzle 

your pale neck, 

to count the hot brown 

patches strewn across 

your hide, and sighed,

Alas.

But at this humble sound, 

your ears pricked up, 

your brown eyes softened, 

and time seemed

to trip and stumble. 

Later—with the taste

of your hot urine mingling 

with rain upon my 

bruise-tinged tongue—

we wondered at a love 

so vast that it could 

barely be contained within 

the rippling boundaries of 

our sweeping Serengeti Plain.

(c) 2018, by Hannah Six

Image: 12019/Pixabay

• Giraffe FAQs: https://giraffeconservation.org/faqs/ 
• Types of giraffes: https://giraffeconservation.org/giraffe-species/
• “Fun facts about giraffe sex...” (which involves a mouthful of urine): https://www.popsci.com/giraffe-reproduction-birth-live-stream

Is Beauty (Day 337)

Stars on sapphire sky, 

bouyant origami boats,

folded from paper money

—is beauty desire?

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Image: Blue Tide, Bruce Anderson 

(University of Stellenbosch)

Cat (Day 326)

Awake?

Get up.

Asleep? 

Not now.

Come here 

and pet me—

no, not there!

Fill my food bowl.

Scoop my box.

Stop knitting socks

and play with me, 

but only if we 

play the game 

you don’t enjoy.

Not with that toy!

Some wet food. 

NOW.

I’m cold, 

your lap Is warm.

I’m hot, please move 

your arm away.

Don’t pick me up

or try to hold me.

You’ll be sorry!

Brush my fur.

Not with that brush!

Now, come to bed—

I’ll purr for you,

unless you really

want me to.

For Charley, who inspired this poem. 

Today.

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Greed (Day 294)

Everything some people have 

is not enough.

Insatiable, merciless, their hunger 

prowls without respite.

Mouths agape, squawking for 

more, they devour

the world whole, spitting 

out the bones. 

Afterward, when it’s obvious

there’s nothing left, 

they suckle and gnaw 

at the emptiness, 

until it turns them 

inside-out.

(c) by Hannah Six

Photo: Per Harald Olsen

Note: I wrote today’s poem in response to the following prompt from poet Kelli Russell Agodon:
“Write a seven-line poem about one of the 7 Sins that only contains seven words in each of the lines.”

Haiku for Day 267

Downpour of darkness  

Inviting elk to forage

Antlers pale as smoke

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Image: skeeze via Pixabay

All That (Day 254)

He shouldn’t undo all 

the trees, hears loons 

downstream, calling 

to his imagination, 

shallow beginnings in 

the leaves’ gilded edges. 

It was the hottest 

year he’d known, 

like Hell’s south side, 

none of the geese 

have flown, but that’s 

fake news. Like back 

when we cried for more 

butter on our bread, 

they couldn’t hear us. 

Our lives were just too 

small for all that.

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Image: Nomeato

Those Pigeons (Day 253)

Change is somewhere 

unsuspected, in 

the flyover, appearing 

after years of show 

and tell, free love,

and Disney World, 

and doves, 

and sugarcoated tears.

The truth is closer 

to the pigeons living out 

their fervent dreams 

on Main St., USA,

yet not as cruel 

as politics, or weddings, 

puppies, fitful starts, 

or sweet and shallow 

broken hearts. 

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Image: Deror_avi

The Dog & I (Day 224)

You see, the dog 

        & I took 

                a walk 

        this evening 

Our neighborhood 

        came out 

                to greet 

       her—all of her 

favorite friends 

& she just 

        smiled & smiled

                with that 

        particularly canine 

breed of joy

At that moment

        a thought fluttered 

                 down & alit 

        on my shoulder: 

This 

is feeling 

like Everything is 

going to 

be 

all right 

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Photo: Lucky, by H. Six

Cat (Day 216)

Takes his rightful place.

Ringed tail tip, slowly: right, left.

Imprints lap with fur.

(c) by Hannah Six

Image: Charley, H. Six

But, Still (Day 204)

Their souls cry: Of course,         we are

You may never see that              far

Or dance among cascading       stars

But, still, you should 

                         know better

(c) 2017, by Hannah Six

Photo: skeeze, via Pixabay