This Place

By Linda Boyden ©2015

Listen to the silence of the great trees.

Birds shelter among branches
heads tucked beneath wings,
feathers preened.

Underground, the earth vibrates
with hungering roots
the trembling hearts of rabbits
the shuddering dreams of moles.

Above, clouds scatter and collect,
reflect muted colors 
as the sun seeps along the horizon,
and stars parade to center stage.

Time to go though there’s something 
about this place that urges me to stay;
something that makes me want to whisper.


Breakfast
By Linda Boyden ©2015

Your toast is burnt
            the way you like;
coffee strong 
            as I demand.
Cream drenches mine, sinful sweet.
Yours stays blacker than 
the argument 
our account depleted again 
when you found a deal,
“Golf clubs, half-price, a steal!” 

At breakfast,
the argument slides
into shadow.
You linger
at the counter
watching me
            watching the toaster. 

It’s the peanut butter we share
our one agreement,
other than how the curves of me 
            find home
                        within the angles of you.

All the rest,
our differences,
are melodies played in a minor key

You cup my face;
dare me to lick peanut butter 
from your thumb.


Finding Home 
By Linda Boyden ©2015

If you have a true heart,
you know how to listen.
You understand the 
negative space of silence;
how words linger near our hearts,
how stories dwell within our ears.

If you have a true heart,
you are a friend for life;
who will listen and laugh
or smack you upside the head 
from time to time.

If you have a true heart, you will 
catch the unspoken need 
within the words
and be there 
with him
            beside her
hold a hand
            jump-start a battery
let supper grow cold
            pace lonely hospital halls
because you know,
you remember  
what the elders taught us:
We are here to help each other find home.


About The Author: Linda Boyden has loved words all of her life. After teaching for a long while, her husband’s work took them to Maui, Hawai’i where she stopped teaching and started to get her stories published. Her titles are “The Blue Roses,” (Lee and Low Books, 2002), “Powwow’s Coming,” and “Giveaways an ABC of Loanwords from the Americas,” (University of New Mexico Press, 2007, 2010), and ”Boy and Poi Poi Puppy,” (Progressive Rising Phoenix Press, 2013). “RoxyReindeer” is the fourth book she has written and illustrated. Besides picture books Linda has had poems published in many journals and belongs to the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, and Writers Forum of Redding CA. www.lindaboyden.com

River, Blood, And Corn Literary Journal: A Community of Voices

Copyright © 2010-2024. Individual writers and photographers retain all rights to their work, unless they have other agreements with previous publishers.We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
If stories come to you, care for them. And learn to give them away where they are needed. Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive.—Barry Lopez, in Crow and Weasel