Wind

"Wind"

An Acrostic by Tom King

Will I with courage face the closing of the day?

In wrapping up my life will I be done?

No, I expect to leave unfinished business here

Don't grieve for I will have fought my war and won.

© 2012

Sheila, Laughing-Eyed

Sheila, laughing-eyed
sparkles about the room
tugging, pulling snapping
sliding silkily into her clothes
immensely pleased with us

Sheila, laughing-eyed,
sparkles up and down

the little world we live in

now patting her swollen tummy;
now stealing a kiss as she passes

Sheila, laughing eyed, full of love
bubbling over………..

© 1974, 2013 by Tom King

Dizzy

I used to like to stand on stumps

Pretending all around the muck and mire

Of Earth lay a thousand feet below me and

Had left me standing all alone upon a spire.

It made me dizzy.

I used to like to sit up in a tree

And watch the pretty girls go swinging by.

Like birds aware of watchers in the foliage,

A flip of hair, a glance up and on they fly.

They made me dizzy.

I touched her hand – a brief electric moment

During which, God smacked me hard upside my head.

"This is the one who’ll wrap your heart up and take it home.

Take care of her, she’s mine,” was what He said.

She still makes me dizzy.

© 2013

Direction

by Tom King 

Did you hear tomorrow on the wind?
I did, just then, a whisper like leaves rustling
Expectantly, waiting for me to catch up;
Tomorrow runs ahead, a puppy chasing frisbees.
Romping off across the meadow in roughly the direction
Of my errant lead, bending the blades of grass
Without breaking them or leaving tracks behind.

Did you see today when it sneaked in early?
It startled me; bumped me out of bed.
Slothfully lying in late without a doctor's note,
Today drags me hour to hour to hour;
Relentless, one foot before the other weaving
Back and forth between the sun, its rise and fall,
Tracing the tracks I leave in the dirt.

Do you feel yesterday watching you from the bushes?
There's this feeling you get on the back of your neck,
Prickly, warm like you forgot something you needed.
Yesterday dogs your heels, catches up from time to time
Poking you on occasion, making you think
About the ruts you made back down the road; nagging.
Should you be going this way at all?

© 2011

After You've Gone

"Eeyore" by Micah King

The cold mountain path
Wends upward; takes me farther
Step by Step from you

A haiku - © 2011

 by Tom King

Mirror

By beholding we become changed,
 Like unto like, image unto image.
The places into which we gaze, dark or light
 Leave marks upon our mortal souls.

Should we focus on the evil that men do,
 Talk about it, think about it,
Brood the long and murky days and nights.
 Surely we shall bid them slip inside our hearts.

Then, one day waking, putting on the day's face
 We look into the mirror and find in it,
All that we despised; all that gave us pain
 Is looking back at us, a wicked smile upon its lips.

 

© 2011 by Tom King

where i am now

where i am now

 

my cat was killed today.
a passing car snuffed her out.
the house across the road from
where i work
was gutted by fire
a fireman burned his hand
trying to save a souped-up Ford.
a year ago today my brother died
with just 16 years and a roomful
of collected treasures.
posters, oil lamps, pictures of girls--the usual
the sawed-off shotgun wasn't empty after all;
and his friend had seen "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"
once too often.
the world is full of ugly
even on the day after Christmas
ugly, ugly, ugly

Jesus wore rags, thorns, and blood
the day after Passover.
i think He's been where i am now.

Tom King - © Dec. 1973

Under Orders

I am being petty and I know it

My feelings hurt, I pull the strings unpliant

The strings that only I know how to pull

To unravel plans that needed my compliance.

No one asked if I would like to do the job

It was just assumed and pressed upon me

“Had I the time?” was never asked.

“Had I the heart?” Consideration that was not to be.

I showed them they should not assume,

To count on me without a thought,

As to whether I even wanted to be counted on,

 Their eyes were fixed upon the prize for which they fought.

But I was wrong for I am under orders.

If they tell me carry one, I carry two.

If I’m to walk a mile, I volunteer to walk another.

And I’m ashamed at that expected task I did not do.

The very ones who call on me, they call me fool

To accept such a command and just obey

No thought should someone take advantage,

“Oh, yes and by the way……”

 

©  2013 by Tom King

Twelve

 

 

 

By Tom King

I liked my life when I was just twelve.

Of all years before,  twelve was the best

I thought. I was out of bed at crack of dawn

And fireflies lit the way home to my rest.

I climbed the brittle oaks in my backyard

To perch so high I could go no further up.

From down below the noise of living arose

Like steam ascending lazily from a cup

An arboreal prophet, me, sitting in that tree,

Trying to see beyond the boundaries of my street;

Beyond the abstract reasonings newly gifted,

To one whose thoughts till now were concrete.

It is well I could not choose to stay

Forever twelve safe from knowing tomorrow

The life I'd have lost, the love that came later,

The joy, pain and grief I would know.

© 2008 & 2013 & 2017

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