Guardian of the Garden Empire, Group Poem, Capitola Book Cafe

Guardian of the Garden Empire

Song of summer, clematis on the vine

Curving about the marble columns

Startling the oriole at the entrance to the dim barnyard

Whose songs of sweet surrender like a calliope

Hush as we tiptoe across the cobblestone

The scent of chamomile drawing me closer

A sweet dance in rhapsody dream

Reminds me of whirling dervishes.

I feel the potpourri of colors and the light and I take true refuge.

A reticent breeze prods the sapling growing in rapture by the fountain.

Calmly fingering the cold steel trigger of her newly-gifted shotgun

She slowly circles its double barrel at the unwelcome scavengers eyeing her full and fragrant

Garden empire.

I am texture, heartbroken, boldly cemented in nature’s erotica.

Clenching buds slowly unfurl to the melody of an ancient myth revealing mystical shades of Victorian gold.

Nonsensical and whimsical images of huge animals frolicking in fountains

Conjures more subtle thoughts of trade winds and mountain air.

Summer swivels in a haze of expressive plum

And disrobes innocently towards autumn.

-- Group Poem, Capitola Book Café, February 22, 2013

By, Pamela Papas, Dave Montagne, Emily Bording, Yvonne, Dick Green, Juanita Usher, Kay Clarke, Caryl, Lynn Rebbeck, Sheila Siegel, Blinkon, Magdalena Montagne