Two Octets from a Sunday

mississippi ave octet #2

 
the linden, leaves flaring, swathed in fairy lights;
orange chrysanthemum petals dripping rain—

in the parking strip, a push broom, bristles up;
yellowed newsprint shrouds the laundromat’s windows—

under sleek bamboo two locked black bicycles;
under a narrow green awning asking, go

on or go back; rain keeps irregular time:
look! two tea roses clenched against November
◦    ◦    ◦


sunday evening octet


this rain sparkling like metal filings through lights
fixed next to the gutters; shimmer in the lot

where puddles ripple darker & the weeping
cherry too blazes next to the playground’s wet

primary colors; kitchen walls in one window
flash white, compass star potholders mother

pleated in life hang still; who’s that in shadow—
radiance drawing near from each direction



Jack Hayes
© 2016


11/1/16