Three Poems

By

Ross Plovnick


Today, a Rainbow

 
When summer light
chased off a thunderstorm,
I’d race with playmates
on our bikes through maples’
puddled shadows to try
to get closer to a rainbow.
 
Who figured droplets
in the air, sunlight beaming
through, refracting at a crazy quilt
of angles, splitting into pyrotechnic
colors? Who questioned fireside
fantasy or candy-store lore?
 
Today, a rainbow, bright bell
curve in the shape of a life,
bridges the fabric of clouds,
but how, on a bicycle bent
with adulthood, to pedal
toward gold that’s not there?

Self-Portrait

 
Through the lens, a man
with an old smile remembers
when he wore a youthful one
like a fresh coat of paint. Life
is simpler, summers stretch
for seasons. A dollar takes a while
to earn and spend. The future
is a rose. Until a roller coaster
of education, marriage, work
and family affairs, the loss
of dear ones, friends. Until
a mirror, the past a wild rose
petal pressed in scrapbooks.
Until no Phantom of the Opera
sings for most of us. Captured
on film, the last/first smile
of an old/young man shares
a faded album with a rose.

Windy KC Day

Trees sway like drunks,
their jerky limbs.
The river is broken
glass. Discarded cans
and paper rattle
down the streets.
Birds that try
fly sideways.
When you golf
in windborne dust
the poor ball
is suspended.
There goes my hat,
but why chase it?
I’ll wait for it to blow
this way again.