Three Poems by J.L. Harlow

Things You Found Me at Your Old Home

When I visited your old home
you found me a salamander,
I thought it was cute but
jumped and squealed when it moved,

Too slithery for my liking, too free to
roam away from my sight, back into the
deep, dark ground from which it came.

You found me a frog, I named it after a
big flower, the Rhododendron,
You think I'm crazy,

You found me a snake, or rather, it found us,
you found me crystals, and rose quartz,
and heart shaped stones,
and peace, you found me peace

And you found me joy, my optimism,
and you found my carelessness,
and you found my soft, mushy insides,

Wet sand dripping at the cracks
of your fingers,

And you found me, and you found me
falling deeper and deeper into your bones.



Fire Bush Corpse

The fire bush is beautiful,
but snakes live on the inside,

be wary of that, like a rose with
thorns, and a deadly prickle,

and the butterflies are graceful
like wind dancers,

and sweet leaves from
delicate trees,
but they feed and feed on corpses,

and the fire bush blooms,
it has bloomed in front of me
and you,

it is like a dragon,
breath of a dragon,

it roars with disclosure
of its mystery,

I thought it to be a rose bush,
no prickly thorns there,

only the nest of a snake,
only the heat of that sweet, sweet red.



Starfruit

The earth tremors in dark,
careless beats, I can hear it.

Somewhere over the
sun no one remembers,

I eat starfruit, and prickling hot tea,
and sunshine,

How much dust
depends on how tired
my bones are,
how much we're willing to ache,

Fake the power of my body,
I am a leaf,
I'll act like the whole damn tree.

Author of poetry books, Dragonfly Island and Mosaic of Ashes, J.L. Harlow has now had several poems published both in print and through online literary magazines such as White Ash, Fat City Review, Surrounded Magazine, Riveter Review and others.  In her spare time she enjoys creating art work, drinking coffee, reading and learning about cultures of all kinds and searching the world for inspiration.  J.L. Harlow hopes to inspire and be inspired throughout her future work.