Summer Wash

with coffee thick with sugar
almond cookies on a cracked plate
the humidity clings to their words
red flowered cotton dresses
they shout out their laughter
giggle like the girls they were
slap at their damp thighs 
at the punch lines
about husbands 
old lovers 
birth
their hearts lighten 
as the sun hangs high
in curtains thread worn
clothes on lines flap in a thankless jersey breeze
and their amazements continue into singing amore
cheeks running with the salt
of sicilian 
tears

jppestana
summer wash
5.30.18

High Noon

gleaming wings glide

from the heights

the sunburnt branches

of an aging

cedar

on the dirt road

a too slow lizard

a crow's

hasty

lunch

jppestana
High Noon

5.27.2018

Only Dusk

only dusk brings the hummingbirds  back to me

their wings frantic coming   
frantic whirring  
tear the air  

stir me

maybe this is the praying inspiration 

maybe they will bring me into the merging of earths  

yearning colors of dusk throat wing and tongue

the long deep sips of nectar 

still beating wings

the hint of 
an elusive 
moon 
stars

and
you

jppestana

only dusk

5.24.18

Sun & Cloud

the sun 

hung up struggling

in a mounting ring of clouds

rough edged furrowed

slips out of 
my sight

she is a softness blossoming

a smaller garden

a softer cloud revealed 

within an even greater 

cloud

without warning

the sky erupts flames

a mosaic of pale blue light

linen clouds 

clouds burning
burning away
to more clouds
of smoke

in this choking haze

she gazes away from this part of me

wonders if this is life missing 

here in a growing pool 

of new rain

and then her sun runs lemon orange 

streams from the coarse heavens

streams through the coarseness of me

through the shouts

of what few clouds

remain

jppestana

sun&cloud

5.21.18

The Plain Man


he is silenced in a place
of long harshly hardened shadows
voices deathly echoes
here the bright blurring of wings rising
to a shrunken sky
go unnoticed
unheard
unsung
and his sun is just some distant unfulfilled wish
and the sound of rain is long forgotten
and the adobe walls of roses
crumble where the sun once rose
melted gold over their trellis tender petals
where roses once heard the stories of love 
love lost
love never 
found
and the women long for the roses of love alive
with morning dew
and the dust is heavy over every living thing
and the wind rattles in these helpless choking streets
and the mad walk in their broken stumbling circles
their mumbled prayers shouted out in vain to
a god drowned out by louder traffic
and their dogs at their feet bark
at the far off sound
of other
dogs


jppestana
the silent man
5.16.18

Random

hands deep
in moist black soil

west of me
there is an ever so pale strand of golden light
it seems terribly frail rippling 
in the pine

the other curious trees lean in to listen to me 
they seem to think I have something to say
I just whistle and they dance randomly with
my warming beating heart

I have moved the nameless dusty red flower now
it is in a sunnier place with other flowers
it seems pleased enough with the change
and I in the ever so slight tremble of earth slipping
through my fingers

jppestana
random
5.14.18

In the Name Of

bless me 
for I have nothing at all 
to confess

unless 

watching a shy sparrow
sinfully splash
in a
small
water-
fall

is
my
sin

also

jppestana

in the name of

5.14.18

Blue Sage

morning begins ends 
in this gentle light

sage filled air

turning curl of her
under a blue sheet
of wrinkled
horizon


jppestana
sage
5.12.18

Known Shadows

a lizard crosses the wisteria's black shadows
freezes in a brilliant white sun on white stone

and the air is full of playful finch bantering
the full flutter of heavy air under their wings
thickly rhythmic pulses in the hum of cooing dove
rubbing leaves
nodding flowers
other birds

this audience of mine confides in me
confides in this breeze softly
that all will be well
that all will be

I want to believe them

then the lizard races back
to the known safety
of its familiar
shadows

jppestana
5.8.2018
known shadows

Origins

my losses gather
in this rushing wind
whisper about me in harsh remind
their wind has etched the sand around me
in what memories survive
and if pain wins me over will this wind
take me with it
take me over this rising mountain
take me to the origins
of my losses
lost spring
of my 
raging 
tears

jppestana
origins
5.9.18

The Ladder

the yellowed ladder
mostly hidden in tangled vines
still drips
from
last
night's
rain

the flaking paint
dapples the wet grass
the wood old worn
mostly split
wobbled legs
almost gone

and when did I last stand on it to look through the sky completely look through 
the cloud of me
stare back 
at a staring moon
painting stars 
with fingers
still wet
from
last
night's
rain

jppestana
5.9.2018 
the ladder

Pink Clouds

are these survivors

from a murder of clouds

or your cheeks reflecting

a mirrored sun

and if you were not here

would the clouds still be pink

or their pure selves 

marrying earth

and sky

and if your hand reached into these sandy hills

would it touch the warm stones

the thirsting flower 
struggling to be

what you are 
to me

these pink clouds

jppestana

5.5.2018

pink clouds

The Oriole & the Honey Bee


an oriole gloriously sits high in the piñon
rocking singing in the yellow breeze
he teases at the only honey bee
searching low 
in clover

amused
I rock in my porch chair
sipping the sweet nectar
running from a
honeyed
sun


jppestana
The Oriole & the Honey Bee
5.3.18

Out of Nowhere

all around me

the air shatters

breaks deeply 

catches me unaware

tosses me thoughtlessly

in a cursing 

wind 

the train whistle interrupts

it is nothing if not a wish

a wish will take me

lingers in this thin whistle

this little town 

bernalillo

a crow from nowhere

begs me to listen 

to its echoing

wings

jppestana

Out of Nowhere

5.3.18