By KB Ballentine
Plum blossoms and orchids pink the bank,
stream humming under willows in gray-blue calm.
Houses full and bright pulse under afternoon sun,
mountains slumber on the eastern horizon.
Swallows scoop the air above sleepy peacocks,
teal and copper tails tucked low.
I could wait here, you a wisp of thought
curled under greening cedar.
Winter’s cave shallows, shrinks from purple clover,
arpeggios of bluebirds and finches threading chill air.
Fires in the north — smoke smudges, pools —
shadow of crow inking the edges.
Just beyond my view,
a white dragon skims the surface,
no — a crane balances near lotus,
and everything waits,
holding its breath.
KB Ballentine has an M.A. in Writing and a M.F.A. in Creative Writing, Poetry. Her latest collection, The Perfume of Leaving, was awarded the 2016 Blue Light Press Book Award.