DIANE WEBSTER - POEMS

Diane Webster's goal is to remain open to poetry ideas in everyday life, nature or an overheard phrase and to write. Diane enjoys the challenge of transforming images into words to fit her poems. Her work has appeared in "Home Planet News Online," "North Dakota Quarterly," "Talking River Review" and other literary magazines.

​GARDEN TUNES

​Among garden blooms
two musicians attempt
to mimic nature tunes
rippling over pond,
wafting through air
in flower perfume,
prolonged note
from violin string.
 
Music stands play mime
like stick men on paper,
shadows stuck on sidewalk
while praying mantis
practices tai chi
on frond stem.

​BOY IN STOCKING CAP

​ 
Even in 100-degree weather
the boy wears black
topped off with his stocking cap
like he enjoys sweat more
than bad-hair-day ridicule
or maybe rehearsing old age
when side hair fringes
the arid baldness on top,
and he remembers skateboarding
boldly down third street hill
instead of returning inside
when ice slickens sidewalks.

​MY FAULT

​Hot summer day
I sit in the open doorway
with the cat sprawled
under my legs
until a mourning dove
skids to a stop
on the shaded sidewalk;
cat leaps
into pounce position
and crouch-scurries closer
except the dove ascends
as if the sidewalk sizzled,
and the cat plops down
with a rude look toward me.

​WILD WONDER

​The cat heard the intruder first
as I opened the door
more confident in morning
that at night when fear
of men lurking in the garage
tickling the door knob
in hopes curiosity opens the door,
but this morning the sound
must be the neighbor’s cat
crouched behind the garage door
readying himself for a pounce
as an incautious bird
settles for dropped seed from the feeder.
But the cat knew
panicked bird wing sounds
and charged outside in
instant hunter mode
leaping on the bench
and scampering from hood
to trunk in wired pounce
a second away any second,
until I open the overhead door,
and the frightened house finch
adrenaline darts away,
and the cat scowls at me
like I might be worth
a second-opportunity kill.