OXALIS TRIANGULARIS (FALSE SHAMROCK)

November flower

During the twilight hour

Wields a strange power

❤ ❤ ❤

Buried raw ginger root

In front of the old wooden step

Because it resembled a tortoise

Its eyes were wise

And didn’t have the heart

To grate it for my tofu-pumpkin pie

This Halloween

❤ ❤ ❤

September 28, 2022

Hurricane Ian aiming for Pasco County, Florida

Had to evacuate from the old mobile home

So warded my property

Asking the Earth Tortoise

To protect us

And it did

The hurricane turned East

Before Tampa Bay

And we were safe

Home again and stepped off

The old wooden step

Into a hole

RockStar my Pit-Chi

Smiled up at me

Then continued to dig

And the ginger tortoise

Was missing

❤ ❤ ❤

Meanwhile, another hurricane coming

This one named Nicole

So I warded in another place

By the yard’s glass door

And this time did more

Placing a stepping stone over the sacred hole

But didn’t run away this time

And the hurricane became a Tropical Storm

But I still felt grief over the loss of my ginger

No way would RockStar have eaten it

❤ ❤ ❤

But the other day

Something pink caught my eye

And here were three pink blooms

Right near the hole

That RockStar constantly dug

No matter how much I covered it

It was cold (for Florida)

Yet these blooms

Oxalis triangularis

–False Shamrock–

Spoke to me

A present from the Earth tortoise

I heard it say, as the wind blew

“Thank you

For sending me back to the Earth

Like all plants

We will live on forever

For tiny seeds

Will always breed

As long as love is there…”

(c) 2022 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGES: November Flower/Tortoise Ginger

FOR MY FAMILY, FRIENDS & FOLLOWERS

My annual poem, posted early, due to the possibility of an almost-off-season hurricane!

Happy Thanksgiving Day
This is important for me to say
Social Media is our folk hotel
Visiting daily, we share and retell

Showing pictures of our dog and cat
And our granddaughter the acrobat
Yummy recipes make me hungry
Love the chance to sign petitions about the bumblebee

Wonderful to hear about your son
Life is tough but they still have fun
What amazing writing and crafts so handy
Thanks for accepting our modus operandi

We huddle together when tragedy does come
It visits us all and we succumb
But having loving thoughts sent our way
Soothes us like a spiritual bouquet

So keep on posting and let me know
How life is, just say hello
Know I think of you although I don’t say
You’re always in my mind on any day

Love & Fun & Happiness to you and your Crew…

(c) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Tom Russell cover art for Folk Hotel

INTRO POEM TO NEW BOOK

What’s with this title? I ask

Some neurodiverse jargon behind a mask?

Makes perfect sense to me

Because this book of poetry

Was written when deciding to have eye surgery

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Camera Obscura is an ancient term

Like me, my birthday time twin DaVinci

Was also fascinated with the human eye lens

The pinhole in a “Dark Chamber” producing

An upside-down image through light

Impossible to see it at night

<><> 

Being autistic I sometimes wondered

If I was seeing in reverse

No one was like me

But I was happy with tablet and pen

Inventing new people and then

Something clicked and I could see

Glasses, I presume at age ten

Astigmatism until my senescence

Then technology pounded on the door

And suddenly my sight was restored

<><> 

So while these poems in my new book

Really don’t relate except for a few

Thought I’d tip my hat

To the Dark Chamber

I finally defeated

Well, after savings used to pay

To have it lasered away

And I can face my fright

As I go into the so-called good night

With my old lady head brave and

Willing to accept my fate…

<><> 

©2022 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Glasses Nevermore