Thursday, February 21, 2008

Treacherous Season

A crippled moon hangs in the east,
a bloody thumbprint with off-white nail
or a tarnished penny stacked off-center
on a new nickel.

Two days ago a meteor
ripped through this city's sky at dawn.

Unseasonable sunlight mocks with
undelivered warmth; every night
the puddles freeze to dangerous glaze
under morning fogs.

This is an election year.
Don't search too hard for omens
you might not like what you find:
change is gonna come, they say
but whose?

Bad news travels through the air
writes itself on stars and clouds
warnings in the changes of seasons--
good news creeps close to the earth
and it's an invisible hand that writes
hope on your heart.

11 comments:

Dale said...

I love this. A really wonderful poem. "Good new creeps close to the earth." Yes.

ozymandiaz said...

Yea, nothing like a blood moon for an election year omen.
Thank you for the last couple of lines.

Anonymous said...

love your description of the lunar eclipse..and then how you took it deeper. love the last stanza too, esp the last 2 lines.

well crafted!

anthonynorth said...

Politics and a message from the skies. Good symbolism, but yikes!

Julia Phillips Smith said...

'Don't search too hard for omens
you might not like what you find:
change is gonna come, they say
but whose?'

Very ominous...

rbarenblat said...

Glorious, Tiel! The first 4 lines especially -- and the last three. Wow.

Deb said...

You captured the last week very well, politics included. I especially like the last two lines.

Jill said...

I'm not even American, and I cannot wait for these election to end.
Fun way of seeing them! Some would take advantage of reading your poem!

Ann said...

Awesome poem. Love the imagery.

Anonymous said...

this made me shiver, then the twist at the end left me with a smile.

Anonymous said...

i really like how you shifted gears and mentioned current events -- it's an art to move in and out of settings like that!