Blues for a Rainy Day
Dogs are barking
and background voices are muffled
Someone is playing an old record
from another room
My mind steps southbound,
one step away from another time
I am now running toward the arms
of moss-covered trees
This is where sleep took hold;
hidden in cloudy visions of a passing smile
Now awake, and stretching my arms upward,
I’m in the place of my birth; without a trace of love
Climbing the Stairs
He had spent many years
exiled among the lost
Now his steps wandered toward rest
There had been many doors
both opened and closed in his travels
And he knew that divided armies must fall,
and there were really no winners in the game
But this is home, a world of cobwebs
and dusty books
The couch says, “hello old friend,”
and it’s all good
©2024 Richard D. Houff All rights reserved.
Richard D. Houff, currently lives and writes out of St. Paul, Minnesota. He has had poetry and prose published in Atom Mind, Brooklyn Review, Chiron Review, Conduit, Louisiana Review, Midwest Quarterly, Night Owl Narrative, Osiris, Wormwood Review, and many other fine magazines. His most recent collections are Night Watch and Other Hometown Favorites, The Wonderful Farm and Other Gone Poems, and Dancing on Rooftops.