Three Poems by Joanna M. Weston

Through Water

     1st line from Dragging the Lake by Thomas James

they are skimming the lake with wooden hooks
taking algae to drown in distant brooks

the beaks of diving ducks stir pond-scum
their heralds are but murderous rooks

willows reflect their faintly feathered limbs
lovers blush over borrowed poetry books

boatmen glide among rush and lily pad
stately great blue heron leans and looks

I lean over the bow to gaze at ripples
sunlight finds drowned pocketbooks

wind lifts scurrying waves to flying foam
storm-watchers watch, wait on tenterhooks



Summer Floral

     1st line from Thomas James' Letters to a Stranger

the field is banked with purple asters
this buttercup held beneath your chin

you pick daisies to make a bracelet
lilacs waft their scent across the lawn

dandelions cluster beside the sidewalk
the vintner pulls petals by the score

have you picked fresh sage and thyme?
bees carouse through the hawthorn hedge

a wren has her nest near massed violets
does pollen bring cling to your eyelashes?



Whether We Aspire to Changes

we are what we always wanted to be
petals curling    leaves falling

these end what we might have been
trees rooted in clay  tangled weeds

this possibility of a shared future
sky raining on majoram and chamomile

the way we intended to live the past
a letter delivered before we arrive

we couldn't imagine acts beyond that day
a swing between two maple trees

I write you a five-year diary
the cat sleeps in an empty room

you include stars in a planned event
eat the inevitability of breakfast

we hold anniversaries in limbo
weather forecasts can't hold us

Joanna M. Weston is married, has two cats, multiple spiders, a herd of deer, and two derelict hen houses.  Her middle reader, Frame and the McGuire, was published by Tradewind Books, and her poetry, A Summer Father, was published by Frontenac House of Calgary.  Her ebooks can be found at her blog:  https://www.1960willowtree.wordpress.com/