My take on a prompt: “You’ve lived a long and difficult life surviving in the desert. One day you fall into a deep sleep. When you awake, you find yourself in a lush forest.”

1
I could have sworn
I saw bobbysoxers swooning
over Sinatra
in the waves rising
from the sand

Too many grains to count
in a lifetime
however hard I tried

Each one loomed larger
than Sisyphus’s boulder

So tired…

2
I’m not used to the damp under foot
the way the earth sinks with every step

Or to the cool moisture
rain dripping off curled leaves
moss at the foot of every tree

Shadows—
cool, crisp, clean
blanketing the spaces between
spears of sunlight

Squirrels, darting in and out
and from branch to branch

Tree tops dancing
in the afternoon breeze

Oh, God
don’t let me wake up now…

(11 November 2021)

Wishes sometimes have consequences is available to order from your favorite local bookstore.

IndieBound search: https://www.indiebound.org/search/book?keys=wishes+sometimes+have+consequences

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Information about my other books can be found here.