Shelter

Shelter

Trees in open trunks
going to peoples homes
to become brightly trimmed
in celebration
of Christ's birth

People without homes
don't wish for trees
or turkeys with trimming
anymore than you or I
in tribulation

They wish for shelter
from the cold
a moment's warmth
a minute's peace
an hour of hope
a home of their own

pattra burnetto monroe december 1994

Alchemy: Color Song I

i am red

fire engine red

flame red

full of desire

a plump passionate

purple red pomegranate

i am rock hard red lava clay

older than dirt

porous from heat

and aloneness

blood red

devoid of blue

water sky river sea

a phoenix without the ashes

without the heat

without the fiery sun

frozen corpuscles

red

blue

purple

none of the above

a colored paradox

i am red

i am blue

i am undecided

ambivalent

my own knight

in shining armor

my garment dyed

with the berries

of the forest

red

green

black

all of the above

below the red

smolders

the still unbidden

flames of desire

i must breathe

life into the embers

fire into my soul

longing into reality

red to gold

Pattra Burnetto Monroe Sept 2000

One of my mother's poems

This Is The Place

Below The Hill

Where Tragedy

Occurred

A Spot Of Blood

The Ruffled Snow

A Sign

Of A Wounded

Bird

Here Is A Heart

Where Love Has Died

A Tragedy As Deep

Yet Never A Sign

Of Weary Years

Nor Spot To Mark

The Pain And Tears

Only Eyes That

Weep

  Marguerite Day Burnetto (December 16, 1923 – December 3, 2004)

Enlighten Me

If it is darkest before the dawn

then let the rooster crow

I cannot continue to struggle

against bonds I cannot see

Images of love are lost

nothing feels real

So pathetic in my suffering

the tears that can't be shed

Sowing what we reap

fearing what we dread

I'm blind to my part in this

and crippled by feet of clay

Frozen in my tracks

in this my darkest hour

While waiting for the rooster

I've forgotten how to pray

Pattra Burnetto Monroe January 2000