CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

On a night with heavy rain, all the stars fell,

Washed down from the heights above my reach,

Their points of light gathered in clusters

Around tall trees, rooftops, and rooms,

Like flocks of birds roosting in spring branches

Or fireflies at the wood’s edge on a summer night.

I saw some flicker and blink; some stayed steady;

Some danced like animated piano keys. 

All of them played their own notes upon strings.

And if one faded out, others burned brighter

Like voices in an evening of music and song

Or an orchestra’s violins in a symphony.

These elfin suns blazed out of the dark;

Their constellations cast shadows upon ceilings,

While candle flames fired up in every window,

Like miniature bonfires set to deflect dark clouds,

And in the warm, wet air, each light-fingered bead

Became a near-sighted blur in the rain.

©cmheuer, 2015

WHIPPOORWILL

Sunlight exits stage left.  Moonlight enters stage right.

Starlight gathers at stage center.  Curtains draw back.

Windows rise for cool breezes.  A grandfather clock chimes.

Woodnotes call out.  Whippoorwill.

Heard less now.  But then, rooms appeared larger,

Days and nights seemed longer, and

Breath spread out beyond what could be seen,

Touched sounds carried by dark shadows and pale light.

Gray-brown-feathered, sight unseen, birds

Breed upon forest floors, perch on low branches,

Feed on insects, and speak of legends and poetry in

Three syllables--a refrain repeated like the ticking of a clock.

Until sleep corners the mind and dreams set a stage
In time with the woodnotes 
Creating rhythm and melody

For departing souls, sleepless eyes, and beating hearts

Tuned to birdsongs and light summer breaths.

©cmheuer, 2015

POINT OF VIEW

As the sun rides low on the horizon,

Cold air migrates from north to south,

Shadows have sharp lines, and

Light reflects unusual wavelengths,

As a singer might voice high and low notes.

Crest to crest each vibrant color code

Translates into a clear point of view

As illusive as the size of the sun or moon

Set upon a line between earth and sky

After summer’s humid, overexposed light.

Framed, corrected view placed over a haze;

Lucid distinctions and definitions override

Uncertainty and shadows more mysterious

Than the darkest nights or rooms;

Crystal clear creates apparitions of light.

Persistent haunts that cling to the mind

Even with glasses removed and eyes closed

Rims are still visible on the back of the eyelid

Darkness is framed. 

©cmheuer, 2015

OPEN CARRY

For every call to arms may there be a call to books

For every loaded gun may there be a book of knowledge

For every raised gun may there be a book opened

For every shot fired may there be a page turned

For every life lost may there be a story saved.

Only then can someone’s call to arms be silenced

Loaded bullets ejected

Raised guns lowered

Shots unfired

Lives saved to write their own stories.

Only then can school doors open

Form words into ideas

Create libraries out of thoughts

Replace weapons with works of art--

Only then can minds grow. 

(To each and every one a call to open carry a book.)

© cmheuer, 2015 

SUMMER DUST

Summer months are fitted and cloaked

With worthless layers of dusty fabric

Assembled by wind, kicked up by bare feet,

And cascaded by rapid wheels or birds’ wings.

Uncoveted, it collects itself on any surface,

Covers up the appearance of things,

Disguises the wilted and dying,

With a thin, archetypal mask,

Conceals the luster of what had been.

Shape-shifting vagabond, without destination,

Leaves my footprints in the doorway,

Leaves an imprint of the summer’s dry sun

On the deepest well of the collective mind

As I wash it away. 

©cmheuer, 2015

THE TIGER LILY

Wild devotion curbs wanderlust

In a subtle recognition of food left next to

The old fox hole for a feral, nursing feline

And her brood of five. 

Obliged without measure, the mother cat

Staked out the house with patrols

To guard against strays and poachers,

Whose intrusions were met

With Roman back-tail arches and

Grecian serpentine hisses; she

Stalked field mice and moles with

Stealth-drawn, tactical maneuvers carried out

From dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn;

Years of tireless and relentless gratitude,

Unspoken in the margins of a human world

There are unknown civilizations that build

Birthing beds out of the earth and befriend

Strangers who smile and place food at their feet.

© cmheuer

KNOWLEDGE LOST

Ideas unchanged and ingrained

Create a mind set in stone;

Brain cells languish among convoluted folds

All is assumed and thought disappears.

Words entertain multitudes like strings of music

Stamped out on stage or piped in for angry mobs;

Concrete sounds pump blood, adrenalin, and serotonin.

Conceptual sounds sink beneath the floor boards.

Hand-to-hand conflict and platitudinous verbal jousts

Leave gray matter unstirred by the action and thought

Laid bare upon ancient pages or upon the air of ruminating voices

Become stifled and buried like artifacts beneath unturned soil.

No room for humanity.  In a world of concrete sounds,

some parrot hustlers; some fill the void with their senses;

and some mourn knowledge lost.

© cmheuer, 2015