Free Verse
Rivers of
Silver
Skies overcast,
leaden
The bay is gray
Birds gathered in quackery
And chatter
as an occasional
River of silver current
moves water
Sparkling in splashes of light
Golden
Salamanders
Pssst! The Gypsy
stepped out
From her tent of many colors:
“I can see you are a very special person
and have concerns about your life,”
as she took my arm and led me
into the darkened interior, all red
and Gold draperies, some sheer and bedazzled,
Backlit for mystery and exotic mysticism.
Symbols and candles—a small table
covered in black silk—a crystal ball.
"The Spirits told me I must tell you
These things and help you to
Attain great wealth and much love."
Well, always wanting love and money,
of course, I listened. “How exciting
I thought. At last an answer to my
questions” As she peered into the crystal
She spoke of many things—other lifetimes
other loves and fortunes all waiting
to come back to me Now.
The room grew hazy,
filled with some kind of smokeless smoky incense.
A noise and the dim light
grew dimmer then suddenly brighter.
There...on the table next to the crystal ball
lay a jeweled lizard.
An amulet—not a lizard she intoned,
but a Mysterious Jeweled Salamander,
the amulet of Kings, Queens and persons
of great wealth. Summoned by the Spirits
who so desperately want to bless me
with my birthright stolen by nefarious persons
in another lifetime. But, to prove my faith
in them and the Universe I must pay
the paltry sum a few hundred dollars,
a mere pittance of what is to come to me
and yes this modern Gypsy will accept Visa.
Later, as I walk through this bizarre bazaar
I see a lady wearing a Golden Salamander
As she gushes to her friend, “It was all so
Magical and mysterious, this gypsy stepped
out of her tent and told me “I can see you
are a very special person,
the Spirits want me to tell you”
(you have been chosen
by me to be My
Golden Salamander)!
Read
Tracy McPherson's haiku in the
"harvest moon" Kukai
