Wing and Sail

have you ever imagined a sky so blue
and wings so long and wide - carrying you off to worlds
unknown across that royal blue sky

have you ever imagined a sea so vast
with masts so tall and white - sailing you off to worlds
unknown across that vast, vast sea
where sail meets sky and blue meets blue and wing
meets a ship called Destiny...

where life is mapped to pages - set to sea and bluest sky
and tales of future history
unfold (imagine)
as wing and sail
soar by

bkmackenzie
copyrighted 2010


Posted for Alphabet-thursday Rainbow Summer School....Blue

Summer Green

the rice fields are green in August

long and green

beneath summer sky

come September

they fade towards brown

but they are green in August

June and July

an ocean of green carpets the valley

a playground

 for bird and sharp eye

the heron,

 the egret,

 the mallard

can be captured flying

between the green and summers blue sky

the rice fields are green in August

 greener than in June and July

come September

as it gets close to harvest

they will fade brown

waving summer goodbye...

bkmackenzie

2010

Posted for Alphabe-thursday summer school Rainbow Green

green was a hard one (these are the Sutter Buttes in Northern Cal - a few miles from where I live)

 

Ruby Red - Return to...

Dorothy had visited OZ as a young girl - when she returned to Kansas no one believed her, not her Uncle, none of the farm hands and not even her dear Auntie Em.

Finally as the years past and she grew older she forgot much about OZ herself.  She married, had children and buried both her Dear Uncle and Auntie Em.  She was happy with her life in Kansas- it had fulfilled her in many ways, yet she always felt that something missing, something that seemed to be hidden deep in her memory.

As the end of her life started to draw near she started to go through the treasures she had collected along its journey.  She was rummaging through the back of her bedroom closet and noticed an old tattered shoe box that seem to stir some emotion but did not recall why.  She pulled it out from its hiding place and slowly moved out of the closet to sit her old bones on the edge of her bed.  She opened it to a site that she had not seen in over 70 years.  There wrapped in silver paper were the Ruby Red slippers that she had worn when she was a young girl.  The memories started to come back to her and she began to recall more and more; the balloon trip over the rainbow,  an Emerald city, a lion, a tin man and a scare crow.  She began to remember a place called OZ and a wicked witch.  Taking a second look to pull out the slippers she noticed a letter neatly folded and placed in the side of the box.  She took it out and began reading it...

My Darling Dorothy,  it started, 


Many nights I have lost sleep about my decision to hide these slippers from you. But my dearest, your Uncle and I both loved you so much, since we could not have children of our own we had come to think of you as our  daughter.  When you left us during that tornado  we were beside ourselves wondering how we would live without you in our lives.  So when you returned to us we were overjoyed and thankful.  You started talking about this place you had visited, a place called OZ.  You were so happy talking about the friends you had made there and a horse of many colors.  I was uncertain what you were talking about, we all thought you had hit your head and were having delusions.  But then I saw the Ruby Red slippers on your feet and remembered the story about how they brought you home to us.  I became frightened and thought if they could bring you home, they could also take you away from us again.  I was so very frightened you would long again for this place called OZ and would leave us forever.

So I hid the slippers in this box, in the far back of your closet and thought if you ever found them your uncle and I  would have long been gone and if you chose then to leave we could or would not stop you from leaving. 

Please forgive me Dorothy, and I pray you find these slippers and get a chance to return to your beloved OZ before it is to late...

Love you Always my child..

Auntie Em

Dorothy read the letter a second time...then it all started to come back to her, she started again to long for that place, the color, the Wizard and yes, she remembered a yellow brick road.  She could hold no ill will toward her aunt for hiding the slippers because she had experienced a wonderful life in Kansas and knew that she would not have wanted it any other way.   But her life was coming to an end and thought as she sat on the edge of the bed there is nothing really left for her to finish here this side of the rainbow.  She started to wonder if she could still get the slippers on her feet and tired first one and it slipped right on.  Then she put on the other, and with that she remembered what Glinda told her, that she had to tap the heels together and recite words telling the slippers where to take her.    So Dorothy stood up and started to recite what came to her mind as the memories of OZ flooded back to her and tapped the heels of the Ruby Red slippers together.

OZ

carry me back to OZ
I have been away too long
my home maybe Kansas, but
OZ is where I belong

not since ’39
have I heard the Munchkins sing
the Lion he must be lonely
how I miss that cowardly King

the Tin Man must be rusted
the Scarecrow lost his mind
so, carry me back to OZ
my childhood I need to find

the Wizard he is waiting
I know I heard him call, to
free the Horse of Many Colors
shackled in his stall

the Wicked Witch does not scare me
nor monkey’s flying on the wing
good Glinda will be there to greet me
and protect me from everything

in Kansas the wind is blowing
everything still black and white
and, yes it may be my home, but
let me walk that Yellow Brick Road
again tonight --


bkmackenzie
copyrighted 2008

When she was found later that day all had thought she passed away from a heart attack...until, until they read the letter and saw the slippers and they all realized she went back to that place called OZ  she always loved....

This is for Jenny Matlock's - Alphabe-Thursday post - Rainbow color - RED

Lucky Strike - Mrs. G

He said the lipstick stains left on her cigarette filters turned him on.
That was not long after they were married in 58’
Lynndy was 18, Al was 25 –
Lynndy was just out of high school.

Al was an insurance salesman.
“He has great potential,’ her father blurted out,
you couldn’t have found a better guy, he will provide for you,
just like I provided for you and your mother.”

During their honeymoon at Niagara falls Al made it clear,
“No wife of mine will be caught smoking an unfiltered cigarette
or caught drinking beer out of a bottle.” He looked straight into her eyes …
”My wife will have more class than that.”

Lynndy came to abide by the rules, Al’s rules,
that is until Charlie showed up at the back door -
with a ½ gallon of milk,
and a quart of orange juice
Charlie was the milkman.
Charlie also went to high school with Lynndy, he was a few grades
ahead of her, now he was - her milkman.

“Hey, Charlie! Do you happen to have a cigarette?” she asked one morning.
“Sure do,” was his answer. He pulled out a pack of Lucky Strike’s.
“Thanks,” was her reply as he gave her a light.
“You know Charlie, you know what would be good right now to go with
this smoke, a cold bottle of beer, don’t you think that would be good
right now Charlie?”
“You sure are right about that Mrs. G.”
Charlie never called a married woman by her first name,
even if he had known her for years. "Manners,
he called it, my daddy always taught me to treat a lady like the lady she is.”
“You know Mrs. G if you like I could bring you a cold beer tomorrow.”
“I would like that Charlie, see you tomorrow, thanks for the cigarette.”

That was the start of a weekday ritual for Charlie and Lynndy. Every morning
after Al pulled out of the driveway Lynndy waited by the kitchen window in
watch of the local milk truck. Charlie would offer Lynndy a Lucky Strike and a cold
bottle of Hamm’s beer. They would sit on the back porch
and talk about high school and  how the world was changing right before their eyes.
They would talk baseball andif the Cub’s were going to have a comeback year.
They would laugh. Lynndy loved to laugh. Then Charlie
 would end the conversation everyday with

“you know Mrs. G.. one day, one day I am going to strike it lucky
and have enough money to take you away from all this.
Then you and I can smoke cigarettes
and drink beer from a bottle everyday.
Wouldn't that be fine Mrs. G?"

Lynndy at that point would pick up her ½ gallon of milk
and quart of orange juice, open the back door and reply-
“sure would Charlie, see you tomorrow, right?”

“Right, Mrs. G-“

bkmackenzie
copyrighted

Posted for Alphabe-Thursday - Random Letter Week - Letter G click here for more of the Alphabet

Zelda and Ziegfeld

Zelda and Fitzgerald
Ziegfeld and Brice
Gershwin, Gatsby, the glam-
our day, New York's day of writers,singers, songs
that en-veloped a city's craze, its 
hidden spaces. When Millay
lived poetry
and Greenwich recited Millay,
that place, before the fall,
before the wall,
crumbled-
Know it?

When lights
took the town,
New York
surprised stood up tall,
glowing golden-green, its money,
it morals-
What morals? - None to be seen, and funny
girls reigned there too -
New York

Supreme - Jolson was the Jazz man
and Ol' Man River supplied
a feeling of an endless summer
flowing freely as wine, free as muse
could speak - whispering low -
speak it slow, speak it easy;
intertwining a bootlegged sound,
a bobbing, roaring laughter
roaring twenties
across town
New York

 As Art Deco fed on Nouveau
melting, morphing concrete curves straight
and empires built reached for the sky,
its limits, skirts shorten higher,
floors lengthened,
time buzzing, life flying,
flew by -
New York

No warning
the song, the writers just past
never meant for us to meet, never meant to last.
Leaving words, and rhythms, places, photos
without faces, where we stand -
In want of what won't come again, that
New York
to late, my friend
not here,
not soon, not twice,
that New York
not again,
not

This Side of Paradise ....

bkmackenzie
copyrighted 2010


“I don't want to live. I want to love first, and live incidentally.”
Zelda Fitzgerald

 Written for Letter "Z"  at Alphabe-thursday , click here for more "Z"

Yin-Yang

The feminine Yin
Yearns within
To understand the You,

That masculine Yang
Yielding to Yes,
Yearning to love
Yours true

A balance of hearts
Not measureable in Yen
Lasting beyond loves Youth

The Yin and the Yang
Yonder all time
Say Yes to love,
To love-

As one in truth….

bkmackenzie
copyrighted 2010

Written for Alphabe-Thursday which you can link by clicking here
the Letter this week is Y