Poems by Ken Allan Dronsfield

Reddish Eventide

As the sky turns from a light gray to orange.

streetlamps now hang albeit a fallow pale

Bluebirds gather upon the wires and poles

the morning sun makes feathers feel warm

coot and cormorant soar down the shoreline

white terns hastily skim along wave crests

large fishing boats race to leave the harbor

the wakes slap against the granite seawalls

couples now stroll barefoot on wetted sands

clouds tinted with a red–orange glow float by

sound of cars now build as the town awakens

sipping hot coffee, my breakfast is now calling.

  

Desert Spirits Dance

Some ride the plains when

the full moon is high.

A ghostly form upon their horse as

they go floating by.

When dark clouds gather and

rumbles of thunder are heard.

Lightning strikes the Superstition’s

amongst screams of the thunderbird.

Spirit mules follow a path to the mines

lost on the trails in another time.

The face of old miners peer from rocks

and sultry shadows.

They hide their gold from claim jumpers

buried in a haunted hollow.

Tumbleweed races across plain and playa

rolling over bones of the lost or pariah.

Dancing in the light under stars and sky,

the reaper walks within a flock of magpies.

Riding o’er the plains when the moon is high.

Rise to inhale the break of dawn; jump at

the sting of a horse fly.

  

Throng of Mornings

I could see the belltower through undulating mists.

Black skies now give way to a gray, bird-filled morning.

Starlings fly in great flocks; first east, then west, finally south.

They gather numbers for a the migration to warm climates.

I watched as leaves of the oak suddenly fell, as if too tired to

hold on for one moment more.

Acorns drop from high branches hitting leaves on the way down

sounding like hail during a freak summer storm tap, tap, tapping

upon an old tin roof.

A lone goose is spotted flying high; either this years gosling

or one who lost its mate during the long summer days.

A noise startles me; the bus stops there at the crossroad.

I step up looking to the field and a small deer stares at me;

I stare back; we didn’t move and neither of us blinked.

Then the bus driver said, c’mon lad; another day begins as

September announces it’s arrival.