Shorts in January

it should be colder
this winter
no wind whips by

i saw a girl walking downtown today
in shorts
it is january

six months from now
i expect that we will all be hoarding water
putting bricks in toilets
like so much rusted water
with little signs about yellow and mellow

but today, i too pulled out my shorts
a tribute to global warming


How can this be?  We are so warm and much of the rest of the country is frozen. They used the term "drought" for the first time this week in a long time. I expect we will hear much more of it---

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2014

Breath Made Visible

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Anna Halprin

DLambertNJ

I need to breathe somewhere close to my chest
where the pillows can't reach me
with their quills pointing

I need to feel something akin to quiet
but as I type the word, it feels foreign
a land beyond my ken

I had a dream not too long ago
about breath
moving through soundlessly
a vision
rather than a cue

sifted in light



The end of a year and the beginning of another one. I feel the closing of doors behind me, a certitude of endings of some sort. And I pause for a moment and hold my breath before I left it leave me.

copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2013

posted for Dverse

The seasons change and so do I

wkimedia commons

Kate Mereand

autumn has grabbed hold of leaves and pushed its way into veins
altering my perceptions of the small things
inside me.

i posted poems and gathered words like raked leaves
falling short
under brittle tines
pinned to blackened earth.


i said good bye and forged hellos
out of sodden tinker toys
and wondered where i was going.

i wonder still.


copyright/all right reserved Audrey Howitt 2013

Hello Goodbye

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mkindia 08

I welcome one daughter home this week after a year on the road with her boyfriend and a backpack.  I am getting ready to say goodbye to my other daughter as she gets ready to work in Germany for a year.  So I feel in between somehow, moving along a riptide of emotions.

Expect the unexpected
ride the tide and let be
pulling bits of tears from lips smiling in hope
I fold them both into parts of my heart
to keep them safe
and to touch them before I sleep.


copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2013

Chitterings

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Photograph by: Hernán De Angelis Campephilus, 2008

I sit and watch the squirrels chase each other in the walnut tree outside
Their chitterings
can peel paint
off the sides of trees
on a velvet day

and yet I don't mind


how does one small animal manage to make such a racket?


copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2013

Pee Mail

wikimedia commons

John Sargent Noble

Otter Hunting ("On the Scent")

In the public domain in the United States

The sun shone in my heart this morning as I was walking Sasha out to the baseball field.  The dew was still on the grass and nestling its way between my toes. I reached down and took off her leash so that she could sniff as her nose might lead her and not for the first time, stopped to think about what joy that simple act must give her.

I have heard that the difference between a human's olfactories and that of a dog can best be described thusly:
While I might smell something cooking on the stove as marinara, Sasha can smell each ingredient, its proportion, and could, if she had the knowledge, tell you where the ingredient came from.

A perfumerie really.

Her nose tracks some scent
lost to me
intensity in tracking
until she finds the exact spot
then she pees on top of it
pee mail received and answered


copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2013

A Bee's Demise (Almost)

wikimedia commons

A common worker bee

William Cho

Lying among the weeds and the occasional blade of grass, she warms older bones and drowses. Almost asleep, a bees arouses some long buried instinct linked to survival, and she snaps at it, almost clamping down on it.

At 10 years old, she has snapped at many bees in her lifetime, and each time she gets one, she gets stung. But either the sting is not enough to deter, or the instinct runs strong, bumping from one synapse to another.  If I watch long enough, she'll get another one.

Buzz brightly
among the aloe-scented fur
freshly washed
scented
to lure.


copyright/all rights reserved Audrey Howitt 2013