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Scrub pines cradle fog,

bristles soften, dissolving.

Pewter clouds scroll the sky

trimmed pink, orange, silver.

 

Across the ocean, a blue day blazes —

bombs streaking like meteors,

smoke shrouding the horizon,

and, all around, the aftershock of silence.

 

Bluebirds and chickadees clash

at the birdbath, twilight collapsing.

I wonder if you face desert sand

or mountain crags, if you can see

your breath on midnight patrols,

in the dizzying darkness. If you wish

on all the stars.

 

 

 

KB Ballentine’s work has appeared in numerous journals and publications, including Alehouse, Tidal Basin Review, and Haight Ashbury Literary Journal. A finalist for the 2014 Ron Rash Poetry Award, she was also a 2006 finalist for the Joy Harjo Poetry Award and was awarded the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize in 2006 and 2007. Fragments of Light (2009) and Gathering Stones (2008) were published by Celtic Cat Publishing. Her third collection, What Comes of Waiting, won the 2013 Blue Light Press Book Award. www.kbballentine.com.