Thousands half-naked people
Roasting under the scorching sun
Extracting billions of coffee beans
Transported by steamboats
Sailed hundreds miles away
Unloaded, traded and grinded
Brought to a modest cafeteria
Someone fry, boil, and serve
A cup of sweet aroma coffee
To a coffee-lover customer.
Vibrations in monotone
buzzing out drones;
sparks sinus pain relief,
such energy defeats the headache foe
with quickening blood flows.
A mystical tide running wide
among Yirdaki notes breathy throats
didgeridoo promotes tranquility like,
steamboats chugging out their waves of foam.
H2o, showers does cause colorful flowers on earth to greatly bloom
It is on the atomic table: this of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen
It being the transportation medium for all nutrients needed
Vital for all living cells absorbing their daily organic sustenance
H2o, in fruits juicy gushing gushers are oranges and watermelons
It assist us with our hygienic health and cleanses clothes
There in the sea we can do swimming, snorkeling and surfing
Grapes, of red and white wine fluids facilitate taste bud pleasure
H2o, in a human’s body is about 65%; that is liquid water
Steam vapors are in turbines and in steamboats and ship generators
Rains at cold temps produce unique snowflakes that falls to earth
Rivers and lake reservoirs are fresh water access and storage
H2o, in life, love, living and leisure, all is connected
Recommended is the drinking of it at eight ounces per daily usage
Medicines and milk and mangos all contain this wonderful substance
This transparent, pure, refreshing, and very much liked and is needed
A dedicated ode to “the gloriously created and greatly used H2O
This rusting chain is witness to an age
When slate was quarried from these ancient cliffs
And where one hundred quarrymen earned a wage.
This harbour, filled with steamboats, schooners, skiffs,
Became a hive of industry, back when
Demand for road-stone, roofing slates and bricks
Was at its peak, then never seen again.
In modern times it’s in the tourist mix;
From far and wide they come; their aim – “The Shed”—
A posh fish restaurant. Book in advance,
Secure your table, or disappointed
And hungry be, and float in fresh fish trance.
The smell of fish and chips wafts from the galley.
Move on, quick! Away! We dare not dally.
New Orleans
The buildings rise from the horizon in the morning sun,
and the city begins to wake
as the scent of creole-style gumbo
rises from the streets.
In the distance, the Mississippi teems,
alive with a thousand variety of fish
as the steamboats, oil riggers, and
ships move inland.
To the port of New Orleans, children take the ferry
with their parents and wave hello
from the windows of omnibuses
and chat of the weather.
In the daylight, the city traffic creeps at a slow pace
as people rush to and fro,
Taxis honk in the streets as bicycles rush beneath the lights
and along the sidewalks.
Young couples sip cafe lattes at the local coffee shop
as grandmothers and grandfathers take their
grandchildren to the aquarium.
I am a spectator to all these events,
a solemn witness in pen and ink, and
I think there is a commonality
in this walk of life.
Children Play
Shape
magic
fantasies
collectively
imaginary friends live, too…pretend.
Children, laugh their play on a summer day
steamboats travel
making waves
dolls grant
love!
© Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
January 16, 2010
Poetic form: Double Tetractys