Paint the Sun: poems by Becky Parker

abstract sun, image by JWLUCKY, on Pixabay, modified

Rain

I embraced hope

as thunder                          

rumbled in the distance,     

the long season of drought

has ended,

rain from the Divine

has come,

to water our fields

of figs and thistle,           

to fill our empty

storerooms with grain,

to clothe our naked

sorrows with robes

of joy.                             

            *

Paint the Sun

Lightning flashed outside the port window of the old schooner

as a seasick mouse painted on a magic easel: a sun-kissed sand,

seagulls hovering over grass huts, and mice dancing to kettle drums

in front of a “NO CATS ZONE” sign. Mouse applied sunscreen

and leapt into the painting!

…

Granny Cat paused in reading the bedtime story. The litter of striped

kittens lounged on inflatable mattresses in her den bordered with pots

of catnip and lacy windows. She smoothed their fur away from sleepy

eyes and ran her paws down their whiskered faces.

Listening to their purring, she closed her tawny eyes and silently prayed

that strong storm shutters on their souls’ windows would protect them

when life unleashed tornadoes without warning, causing upheaval and fear;

that somehow in the darkness they could keep hold of their inner lights,

pick up their easels,

                                                                       and paint the sun.    

____________________________

Becky Parker resides in Tennessee. She is a Pushcart

prize nominee whose works are found in Spirit Fire

Review, Agape Review, Sweety Cat Press, Yellow Mama, Appalachia Bare, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, the Rye Whiskey Review, Pulse, the Green Shoe Sanctuary, Avocet, 

Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal, Amaranth Journal, 

Spire Light, Mackenzie’s Publication, Salvation South,

Heart of Flesh, Mildred Haun Review, and North Dakota Quarterly. She is a Tennessee Mountain Writers’ Children’s Literature Award winner and is the founder of Briar Haus Writes, which is a literary page and group on Facebook.

July 2024 issue