Return

Return

You’re back again

from your warm southern climes.

I’ve been waiting

an eternity

for your return.

I looked up

and there you were

an harbinger

of the melting warmth to come.

Let me just look at you;

soak you in.

You haven’t changed at all.

So welcome,

you have brought home, home.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Taking Planet Earth for a Spin

Taking Planet Earth for a Spin

Come on my good friend, come on, get in;

For your own safety sake, buckle your belt;

We'll take planet Earth out for a spin;

Let's travel so fast the Polar Caps melt!

We’ll make it a day; it’ll be really rad!

Let's swing by the Milky Way; drink it all up.

Come now, drink up…why should we feel bad?

It’s an endless cup!

Then let’s leave trash all over Mars

Is there, or isn’t there, life in the stars;

Who cares if there is…

their lives’ are not ours.

Let’s release gas emissions all over the place

Oh, the fun we will have, Oh, the smog we will make.

Clean air’s overrated, we won’t leave a trace

Why do we need air for goodness sake?

When our trip’s finished

We’ll laugh and we’ll say,

“We’re so very sorry,

But, that’s just our way.”

Lindsay Riggs Brown

This Absent Thing

This Absent Thing

This absent thing
withers on the vine
never materializes
merely expectation.


Seeds of change
don’t germinate
they terminate
an infinite lack of gestation.


Green leaves
never the burst of fruit
on the tongue
nothing more than anticipation.


Lindsay Riggs Brown

Trouble with Tenacity

Trouble with Tenacity

trouble with tenacity is;
it’s tameless;
talkative;
takes you to task;
and it
trumps everything;

trouble with tenacity is;
it tears with its talons;
taunts with its teeth;
taints everything;
and it
takes every bit of your time.

trouble with tenacity is;
it’s tediously intangible;
taxes intuition;
and it
tortures the heart.

trouble with tenacity is;
it’s terribly tumultuous;
tremendously irritating;
and it's
tyrannically tempestuous.

trouble with tenacity is;
it tangles the tapestry;
and it
tarnishes everything it touches.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

cryptic soup

cryptic soup

there’s a poem
in my soup
that won’t let me be
and though cryptic
says something to me

a message to me
in the leaves of my tea
whose meaning I see
is my own

a word that you said
swimming round in my head
and it just
will not leave me alone

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Words of Wisdom/ A Bumper Year for Mushrooms

Words of Wisdom / A Bumper Year for Mushrooms
For Robyn

“I’m tired”, I cried. “I need a husband.
Someone to take out the trash,
dry the dishes after dinner,
and help with the dirty laundry.”

“I’ve got one”, she told me.
“One that I love.
And I’ve got twice as much laundry,
twice as many dirty dishes piled up,
and he never remembers to take out the trash.”

“I can’t stand any more rain!” I said.
“Well, there has been a lot of rain this September.”
My sister said.
“But, it’s been a bumper year for mushrooms.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

When spring came again,
I asked,

“How can I bear to smell the rain on warm pavement,
watch the Horse-Chestnut stretch,
and see your red Geraniums bloom in their flower-box?”

But, the rain perfumed a different world this year,
the Horse-Chestnut doesn’t look like the same tree,
and you didn't plant any red Geraniums.

Lindsay Riggs Brown