Iris

fish splashing in iris

bubbles of sun rise to the surface  burst open

fish fleeing to the padded shadows

of sun 
filled 
lilies

jppestana

Iris

6.4.18

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