Dreamer – chapter 5

Chapter 5

Suddenly everything turned dark. Night surrounded them as the train kept rolling down the track. It made Henry uneasy, but as he looked around young Purrlin was still shoveling coal into the firebox and Simmi had now crawled up on his lap for comfort!

Purrlin’s voice seemed clear above the noise of the train. Don’t let the dark night bother you. It only lasts for a short time and soon you will see the light again.”

Henry looked out the window at the full moon peaking above the clouds. He knew as long as the train stayed on the tracks he would be fine. The train’s black smoke billowed back across the engine, and blended into the night sky!

The dark got even darker as the train charged into the mountain tunnel.

At the far end, Henry saw the morning light welcoming him.

;Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Spin-off from Monday’s d’Verse prompt dreamer: https://dversepoets.com

Dreamer – chapter 4

Chapter 4

Henry took and deep breath and looked into the green aura behind the burning red flame of the candle. Simmi rubbed around his ankles purring. His mind was a little fuzzy now, and seemed to be floating in another dimension. In the background he could hear Purrlin’s calm voice.

“Let your self go boy. Your dream is waiting to be fulfilled!”

Everything faded in a blanket of fog. The green aura of the candle became the green fields on both sides of him as he found himself in the engineer’s seat of a puffing locomotive. Across from him was a young man who looked very much like Purrlin. And there was Simmi the cat curled up at his feet.

Amazing, thought Henry to himself, as he reached up and pulled the rope that brought a shrill whistle piercing the clear mountain air.

Paintings: Dwight L. Roth

Full Bloom

Today we took our first excursion since before Covid 19 started. We met with our old friends at Lake Norman NC. It was a wonderful day of connection. The house where they were staying this week was surrounded by beautiful Azaleas and Dogwoods in full bloom. It was a gorgeous time to be there. I am pausing my story chapters to share some of the beautiful flowers with you. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Nature’s best for free

Blooming beauty you can’t buy

Petals gone next week

Unedited iPhone Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Waiting to Come Out

Bluebird clutch waiting

New life grows inside blue shells

Nature’s poetry

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Mystery Bridge

Do you recognize this bridge? A few years ago while I was working at the Habitat Restore, we got an old wooden desk donated. While cleaning it up for resale, I found the small 3 x 3 black and white photo above in one of the drawers. It appeared to be an old post WWII era photo of a bridge, and on the back it said Savan River Bridge. I was intrigued by the picture and did some research, but came up with nothing with that name.

I though it looked like a bridge that could have been in Paris so I started looking at bridge images on line and found that it is the Ponte Alexander iii bridge. It was named in honor of a Russian Czar. You can read about it at this web site: Pont Alexandre III – Wikipedia

I decided to paint the bridge and this is how it came out: It is 3′ x 4′

Mystery bridge found

in Paris crossing the Seine

Someone’s lost treasure

Eggshells and Earthworms

When my grandchildren outgrew their toybox a few years ago, I decided to use it as a compost bin. I put it below my garden at the edge of the tree line. It gets filled with all my trimmings, grass clippings, household garbage, and any other natural vegetation. I fill it a few times over the year. Each time it rots and composts down. All that garbage condensed into a half of a bin full of rich compost.

Today, when I dug into it, it was well rotted and full of tiny earth worms. I put part of it on my grape vines and saved the rest for my tomatoes I am going to plant. Black Gold, wonderful stuff to build good rich soil.

Vegetation rots

Rich compost farmed by earthworms

Makes great tomatoes

My compost full of earthworms when I dug into it.

Compost on my new grapevine I planted last year.

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

On Fire

Numb fingers

tingle, hands burning

What’s the deal

You’re failing

After all these years typing

How could you do this

*

Getting old

Tendon overload

Short circuits

Jolting pain

You click away, wrist lights up

Can’t stop now

*

Fingers, please don’t fail me

You must help

I’ll slow down

You still have more words to type

Carpal tunnel hurts

Today at d’Verse, Grace asked us to write a poem personifying a body part. I chose to write about my hand that seems to be developing carpal tunnel syndrome. My fingers get numb and sometimes I wake up in the night with my hand feeling like it is on fire. I have cut back on my typing, switched to my left hand for the mouse, got a wrist brace, and do some exercises to stretch out the tendons. It is much better that it was a couple of months ago.

Today I am trying the Shadorma form for my poetry for the first time. I hope I got it right!

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Nature’s Little Gift

While resetting my stepping stones, I stopped to take a rest on my chair along the creek. Across the way the sparrows were coming back and forth to the birdhouse with pieces of material to build a nest in the box. I noticed a feather lying in the leaves on the ground on the other side. About that time, I saw the male sparrow fly down and pick it up in its beak. He flew to the birdhouse and proceeded to drag it into the nest. He got two-thirds in the hole, but could not get the rest into the nest. Next thing I knew he pushed it back out and left it float back to the ground.

I went over and picked up the feather and found that it was a hawk feather. The hawks come and visit the gas-line clearing from time to time. It is a beautiful specimen as you can see. I thought it was interesting to see the fuzzy down at the base of the shaft. That is most likely the way they stay warm and insulated in cold weather. I decided to save it for my collection of odds and ends!

Hawk feather too big

for brown sparrow’s bird house nest

Nature’s gift to me

iPhone Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Bald Focus

Bald Focus

Woe, the sad reality of present nights

Washing a shiny bald head with only traces of down

A slick global arc that would make a women turn away

Happily these hairless days are short lived

But memory now fades, of those obnoxious hair grease jingles

Rattling in my brain out of tune

*

Today at d’Verse, Lisa asked us to write an Opposites Poem, where we take a poem and write the opposite of it! I chose to do one of my own poems, that I called Hair Daze. The original poem is shown below.

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Hair Daze

Oh, the glorious memories of past days

Combing long flowing hair with swept back duck-tails

Smooth waves that would make a surfer gaze

Sadly the glory days leave only tales

But, I do remember the TV ad…

”Brylcreem… A little dab will do ya!”

1965

Celebration

Celebratory gift on a cruise up the Rhine

Left in our room, a bottle of wine

Marking the celebration of a lifetime

A nice surprise midway through our journey

Remembering fifty years together

A wonderful achievement

Shared at dinner with friends we just met

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse Linda asked us to write a Quadrille of exactly 44 words celebrating the fruit of the vine, Wine! On our 50th Anniversary trip in 2019 we were treated to a complimentary bottle of Champagne. that we found in our room when we returned from our morning excursion in Cologne.

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