My poems

I tried my hand at more poetry this year.

This first one is a free verse poem about my childhood memories in Florida. The neighborhood children and I had quite the imagination back then.  

The Island

The heat of Miami was prime fuel
with wild music drafting out of open windows.
The tropical humidity stirred imagination
to be born, and grow as full and lush as the wild-life
and greenery sprouting from every wet, breathing crevice.

I lived in a white house, on a cul-de-sac.
In the center was an island.
Bushes, and trees swung and swayed,
sang to us of their wildness, and
beckoned us children to it.

Sometimes we'd play pirate.
We even, once, thought to bury little trinkets in a box,
a real treasure, for the future to find.
Only it was "found" by one of our own, a traitor, a mutineer;
Ironically, our very own treacherous captain.
She never fessed up, but I suspected her.

It had been her clever idea.
The others weren't fooled, either.

Other times we'd be marooned,
left for dead after a ship-wreck.
We'd plot our escape from the fearsome island,
concocting how to build a raft
to cross those black pavement waters.
Or, we'd attempt to steal a coconut from the sole tree
that could give us food.
The very same tree which served as home base
during frantic games of tag.

The grown-ups whispered about,
even going as far to socially snub
these two ladies that co-habitated
and owned far too many cats.
To us kids- it was obvious- that the real cause
was that they were witches.
A bohemian coven of two.
With their strange, colorful ways of dress;
beads and skirts flowing, just like
their long, unkempt hair.

Wow, so nice story!! *_* I imagined all these pictures that you described here very vividly - island, sun, trees, seaside... Never thought your childhood was so cool and full of bright colors (I can hardly remind smth as bright and prominent in mine)) Especially a couple witches with their long messy hair, dresses and cats!^^