Home Truths

Home Truths
(Tanka chain)

Kiki scans pages
of morning’s feline gazette.
She nose tracks letters
in earth scented light columns;
marks time shoveling fur dew.

Black coffee belches
steam from kiln fired cup. Speakers
squirm with hot vibes – it’s
Ry Cooder pulling the strings
all over Chavez Ravine.

Sun beaten faces
peruse stacked rows of new spines.
I watch their eyeballs
search for cryptic codes – ears on
high alert for ringing bells.

April afternoons
peer through weathered portals like
curious children;
picture frames gloat silently
in peach coloured patinas.

Sky water grinds stone
like flint over rock incline.
Liquid ice gathers
with lichen silt; stream bounces
light bullets behind my eyes.

Solar fireball shrinks
into a fluorescent dusk;
he knows how to mix
a Caribbean cocktail
in layers of ochre crush.

Night shows up dressed to
the nines in black taffeta.
I don’t need to stare;
I know she holds the room in
her tight grip – I know she’s mine.

©️Orion Foote