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

Burned

Burned

I tried so hard to be your friend,
but you kept me at bay.
When you found 'twas me you loved;
That’s when you ran away.

I had a mind with acumen,
but I lacked a certain look.
I had a heart that loved you;
That’s what you forsook.

I don’t know how to integrate
this lesson that I’ve learned;
To love a shallow minded man
will only get you burned.

Lindsay Riggs Brown

Killing Time

Killing Time

Time stretches out long past defining.
Clocks, dials, and sands run out

as Winter’s sun is bit by bit declining.

With dwindling work-years waning,
love and death lie in their beds alone,
life’s force now slowly draining.

Time takes in trade a man’s toolbox
then in turn presents to him with ceremony
a futile golden watch.

Each and every second counted;
each moment left to sit; a vacant stare

until such time as death can be surmounted.


Lindsay Riggs Brown

The Changing Tide

The Changing Tide

I’ve swum out too far.
You paddle
in the shallows
oblivious to my peril.

Muscles aching,
burning breath
I stretch my capacity to reach
an unfamiliar shore.

Emerging,
dripping sea water,
I shield my eyes with my hand,
and scan the empty shore I’ve left behind.

Lindsay Riggs Brown