Evergreen

“Dream House,” a collage by Susan MacMurdy

The seasons changed,
And so did our love.
The fleeting, flitting, fickle first feelings of false spring before the second coming of winter floated on the breeze…
Gently, quietly, barely noticed, they swirled with the undercurrent of something more.
A sudden, not-so-unsuspected cold snap pressed hard against the uncertainty of emotion yet undefined.
Brief as it was, it revealed a blossoming warmth that gave hope for coming growth.
The green bud pushed forth, struggling against natural and unnatural adversities.
Cathartic sunbathing in blissful awakening, two hearts bound by evergreen boughs, transformed yet familiar…
Bloom in extant, stronger, and more reverent for their trials.

– Written for Rattle.com’s January Ekphrastic Challenge.

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Her Ship

The sky beyond her window sill
is still
and trees deny the wind
their bend.

She waits again this morning,
feeling forlorn and

holds her
breath to steady her gaze
as she tries to see
through thickening haze.

With sight focused upon the horizon,
she wonders if the next wave will give rise
to the vessel she is sure to recognize.

She believes
the sea
will deliver
her

the day when
her ship comes in.

Cape Cod Morning by Edward Hopper. Oil on canvas, 1950.

– This is an Ekphrastic poem. It was inspired by Edward Hopper’s painting ‘Cape Cod Morning’.