Sketchbook  Andreas Gripp, CA

 

 

Free Verse Francesca, Weeding the Garden My daughter, all of six and bursting with a Big Bang sort of energy, zigzags across our fenced backyard, picking dandelions she holds in her fist, for an “I love you daddy” bouquet, like the lofty ones I snagged for her mother before the tumors took her away, their sunny heads of yellow jutting freely from curling fingers, my steady, sturdy voice now a downcast, trembling shell, saying they last a little longer than flowers, we’ll wish you better when they turn to spores.

 

 

Shan-zi* Fluctuation Icicles melt in the afternoon Puddles form below reflecting sun Evening freezes fallen water, mirror for the moon     Middle of March The first flower pokes through thawing ground, its blossoming bract prefacing Spring Early to rise, no other bloom shares in its glory     Basement Apartment Hungry cat purrs on the window sill Just outside, a bird looking for worms A pane of glass keeping food chains from getting longer   *Andrea Gripp is the originator of the Shan-zi form.

 

 

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