FOUR FEATHERS PRESS ONLINE EDITION: POINT UP Send up to three poems on the subject of or at least mentioning the words point and/or up, totaling up to 150 lines in length, in the body of an email message or attached in a Word file to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com by 11:59 PM PST on April 18th. No PDF's please. Color artwork is also desired. Please send in JPG form. No late submissions accepted. Poets and artists published in Four Feathers Press Online Edition: Point Up will be published online and invited to read at the Saturday Afternoon Poetry Zoom meeting on Saturday, April 19th between 3 and 5 pm PST.

Monday, April 14, 2025

Don Kingfisher Campbell

Upside

Down


The ceiling is the floor

The floor is the ceiling


Look up at the carpet

Stand on stucco


The furniture is too high

Step up through the door


Fall into the sky

Observe streets above


Amazing how cars and trees hang there

And planes and clouds swim in lower blue


Say goodbye to the wet welkin

Gaze down to the only void


Keep falling to be surrounded by black

Giant marbles all around float along


Now up is no longer relevant

But the existence of a soul still important




Upward Bound


The ramp is a time machine

And I’m the one powering it

Walking to class every summer


The ramp is the angular plane

I ascend into a future which becomes

Present, then descended passed


I’m the one who used to be young

Reddish brown beard turned gray

Now glasses like Santa Clause


Walking with a tee shirt on, cut off shorts

Tennis shoes, white socks...oh well...guess

Some things don’t change too much




Vista Point

 

Pan down from vast

Baby blue sky

 

Low horizontal clouds

Over brown haze

 

Inside one can make out

Downtown skyscrapers

 

Come closer and see

Colorado Boulevard buildings

 

Looking like a village

Surrounded by trees

 

Just below the foothills

Houses, backyards, pools

 

Matchbox cars parked

On the gray veins

 

Wooden telephone poles

Veer away from hills

 

On the dusty trail

Groups of morning walkers

 

Sweaty steady runners

Water bottle equipped hikers

 

Wear wide brimmed

Earth-colored hats 

 

A father carries young

Son on his shoulders

 

White bearded man leans

On a crooked cane past

 

Agave cacti, shrub roots

Run alongside cliffs

 

Hybrid butterflies dance

Around purple thistle

 

Bee flies dart into/

Out yellow mustard

 

Spot a long spotted

Lizard in the brush

 

An empty Capri Sun

Packet on the path 

 

Clear plastic sandwich

Bag at the edge 

 

Torn portion of 500 count

Bath tissue farther away

 

Cobalt beer can rests

Amidst the bushes




Pick Up Walk


Even though the dog we sat

has been gone for a week

I don't want to lose the habit


So I tell my wife let's stroll

despite being animal-less

look at the morning moon 


We retrace a familiar path

the street we've known

for five cohabitating years


Only this time we stumble

upon a menagerie of toys

strewn on a green verge


There's a smiling pink whale

an assortment of tea cups

scattered miniature road signs


Among other smaller objects

tiny flatbed cargo trucks

and faux medicine applicators


I stop and contemplate why

they are there so jumbled

Were they left in haste


We continue our sojourn

and sight the usual succulents

that look like green flowers


A knotted tree makes great

photography except in color

Mockingbird remembered


A sidewalk corner sports

a spray painted black X with

two red circles like angry eyes


My love says see the plane

encountering some clouds

it is circling around okay


But my mind cannot leave

the collection of children's 

discarded happy plastic


When we return I postulate

if they are abuse victims

I hope both are safe now


What can we do but incant

my wish for no violence 

by pilfering one favorite


To take home and gaze

upon to remind myself

we all need some magic


Just to successfully go

through each diurnal

in a world of humans


Who can become forgetful

that small creations do

help us plan our lives


Which depend on others

to either support or break

the dreams of futures


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