Willow Tree and Snowy Visitors
Michael Lee Johnson
Winter is tapping
on the hollow willow tree's trunk--
a four month visitor is about to move in
and unload his messy clothing
and be windy about it--
bark is grayish white as coming night with snow
fragments the seasons.
The chill of frost lays a deceitful blanket
over the courtyard greens and coats a
ghostly white mist over yellowed willow
leave's widely spaced teeth--
you can hear them clicking
like false teeth
or chattering like chipmunks
threatened in a distant burrow.
The willow tree knows the old man
approaching has showed up again,
in early November with
ice packed cheeks and brutal
puffy wind whistling with a sting.
___
Michael Lee Johnson is a poet, and freelance writer. He is
self-employed in advertising and selling custom promotional products. He is the author of The Lost American: From Exile to Freedom,
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-46091-7. He has also published two chapbooks of poetry. He is also nominated
for the James B. Baker Award in poetry, Sam's Dot Publishing. He is a
contributor in the Silver Boomers poetry anthology about aging baby
boomers, by Silver Boomer Books. Michael Lee Johnson presently
resides in Itasca, Illinois, United States. He lived in Canada
during the Vietnam era and will be published as a contributor poet in
the anthology Crossing Lines: Poets Who Came to Canada in the Vietnam
War Era publication scheduled for early 2008. He has been published
in USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Turkey, Fuji,
Nigeria, Algeria, Africa, India, United Kingdom, Republic of Sierra
Leone, Thailand, Kuala Lumpur, and Malaysia.
Visit his website at: http://poetryman.mysite.com/. He is now the
publisher, editor of Poetic Legacy,http://www.poetriclegacy.mysite.com/ ; and Birds By My Window: Willow
Tree Poems at http://birdsbywindow.blogspot.com/. Both publications
are now open for submissions.
©
Michael Lee Johnson