by Pat Laster

handsome widower
exults in turning 80
if I ask him out
will he take it the wrong way
I weigh the pros and cons
~~~~

1:30 a.m.
son comes to my room, asks
"Where's the poster board?"
    teens must think moms
   are magic--or mind readers
~~~~

nowhere to go
deer in the town surrounded
by water
   what to do? an urban hunt
   with bow & arrow? O, Lord
~~~~

washing up
after the autumn planting
inchworm on my neck
   those were azaleas, inchworm,
   not marigolds!
~~~~

waning gibbous moon
after the ice and snow melts
a power outage
   as I transcribe this poem
   the light returns
~~~~

in my dream
he removes two birds
from my brow
   we face-nuzzle
   no words needed
~~~~

c 2012 by Pat Laster dba lovepat press

It’s That Time Again!

by Pat Laster

 

 first leaves first leaves
yielding to autumn:
the small red sumac

--Dorothy McLaughlin, New Jersey
September 19 in our co-written flip calendar,
Connecting Our Houses, published 1997
~~~~

“Change”
(an Etheree)

My
windshield
wiper sports
a leaf, yellow,
maple – a ticket
like one a policeman
might tear off and deposit.
No, this is from Mother Nature.
As if regretting the hot summer,
she leaves a portent of the days to come.
~~~~ 

the sunset
through vibrant leaves
their colors blending
~~~~

a red sweetgum leaf
caught in the camellia~
dishwasher whirring
~~~~

bountiful harvest
one leaf and one pear still hang
on the tree
~~~~

the bare gingko tree
its golden leaves allowed
to lie undisturbed
~~~~

rushing outside
at the sound of geese ~
the fiery sassafras
~~~~

© 2012 by Pat Laster dba lovepat press

Ruth Flint Miller, 1790-1830

Two Dorieces about the same woman

I.
Ruth Flint Miller,
wife of the first
Territo'rial
governor, stalled.

Pioneer she
wasn't! She could
not bear going
to a wild place.

Seven children
are a handful;
try moving them
to Arkansas!

"Thanks, but no, thanks!
I'll stay where it's
safe and secure
among my kin."
~~~~

II.
My husband went
to Arkansas
as governor,
eighteen-nineteen.

I shuddered: that
wild place, and our
seven children?
Unthinkable!

Repugnant! I'm
no pioneer!
New England's my
security.

I'm completely
happy to be
a stay-at-home
wife and mother.
~~~~
Information from Anne McMath's First Ladies of Arkansas

The Doriece poetry pattern was created by the late Maggie Aldridge Smith of Siloam Springs AR. The subject is a woman, the stanza form is four lines of four syllables each. Four stanzas comprise the pattern. It can be rhymed or unrhymed.

These poems written August  1990, published in my second chapbook, Variations.

c 2012
by Pat Laster dba lovepat press

Thoughts and poems of a haikuist during a Disciple 2 Bible Study

                          
by Pat Laster
Benton Arkansas


no-good nephew Lot
chose all the fairest farm lands
let's see how he fares
~~~~

"Sarai's my sister,"
Abram told the Pharoah
to save his own skin
~~~~

"I couldn't help it!
When God said I'd bear a child
I had to laugh!"
~~~~

Assignment:

Read all of Jonah?
I exclaimed at midnight
... 48 verses
~~~~

"OK, OK! I'll
do it your way, Lord; just
lose the big damn fish!"
~~~~

c 2012 by Pat Laster