THUGWISE CAT

Little Desert Flower
By Michael Lee Johnson
Out of this poem
grows a little desert flower.
it is blue sorrow
it waits for your return.
You escape so you must from me
refuge, folded, wrapped in cool spring rain leavesavoiding
July, August heat.
South wind hell-fire burns memories within you,
branded I tattoo you, leave my mark,
in rose barren fields fueled with burned and desert stubble.
Yet I wait here, a loyal believer throat raw in thirst.
I wrest thunder gods gathering ritual-prayer rain.
It is lonely here grit, tears rub my eyes without relief.
Yet I catch myself loafing away in the wind waiting fate
to whisper those tiny messages
writer of this storm welded wings,
I go unnoticed but the burned eyes of red-tailed hawk
pinch of hope, sheltered by the doves.
I tip a toast to quench your thirst,
one shot of Tequila my little, purple, desert flower.
Author bio: Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the
Vietnam era. He is a Canadian and USA citizen. Today he is a poet, editor,
publisher, freelance writer, amateur photographer, small business owner in
Itasca, Illinois. He has been published in more than 915 small press
magazines in 27 countries, and he edits 10 poetry sites. His website is:
http://poetryman.mysite.com/. Michael is the author of The Lost
American: From Exile to Freedom, several chapbooks of poetry,
including From Which Place the Morning Rises and Challenge of Night and
Day, and Chicago Poems. He also has over 101 poetry videos on YouTube
as of 2015: https://www.youtube.com/user/poetrymanusa/videos . Michael
Lee Johnson was nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards for poetry 2015 &
Best of the Net 2016. He is also the editor/publisher of anthology,
Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow.
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