September Cinquains

Billy hosing the tree down before the brush pile is lit

AFTER THE REUNION
Little
white church alone
again, guarding headstones
of the early settlers until
next year.

BEGINNER BAND CONCERT
Driving
one-hundred miles
just to hear his grandson
play the trumpet for eleven
minutes.

BOTTOMLESS PIT
Waiting
for the pizza,
he eats the entire bowl
of tuna salad--his 13th
birthday.

CRITIQUE
Strange--the
paths our poems
take before coming out
of the woods near perfect, like our
children.

STILL TREMBLING
Two hands
to lift the mug
of tea after tumbling
down the steep grassy slope I was
mowing.

[from September Cinquains, 2003
 c Pat Laster]