TWO POEMS BY ALICE PARRIS

5 O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING

Midnight stars, thrown like glitter
across the night, disappear into the
pre-dawn blue of sunrise.
I drink coffee at my kitchen table.

Devil's Ivy crawls on my butcher's block
table like early morning desire crawls on
my belly. I content myself with aloneness,
assume the posture of a ready scribe:

I exhale the staleness of night,
stretching out upon dawn's desire.
My pen retrieves from slumber-visions
the hidden language of the heart.

© Alice Parris


CAT-SCRATCH MORNING

A fat gray cat, crouched on a cloud,
licks from a dust bowl in the sky.

Lightning spills like milk waiting
For a rough tongue, licking.

A giant cat-tail swishes, brushing
the firmament while a coughed-up,

fur-ball rolls like a tumbleweed.
across heaven's highway.

The sound of a cat-scratching can be heard
in the deep throats of wind and thunder.

© Alice Parris, Scottsdale, Arizona