At Day's End the Forest Loomed Untamed

I remember the relief of daybreak when all seemed right with the world after spending a night camping outdoors.

At Day's End the Forest Loomed Untamed

A giant claw, pointy, witchy, reaches

through the underbrush, snagging

whatever it can. Unseen water raking

shoreline stones, or a fish showering shards

breaching, raises gooseflesh on necks,

startles city dwellers more in tune with night's

madness in an urban center: car alarms, sirens,

cat howls.

The "old" hands chuckle at the innocents,

inflate tales of marauding bears.

Early morning aura dispels the tarriness

that cloaks objects. Billowy clouds

no longer sinister, pines and oaks sober,

the bay subdued.

The talon? A wind driven branch fallen,

innocent in daylight turned menacing fodder

for campfire teasing.

But fresh paw prints renew sundown's vagary.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor

Pale Blue Dot

I am inspired by the picture taken by Voyager I as it was set to exit our solar system.  Each time I see it, the photo stops me. Below are thoughts that came to me as I stood admiring it.

Pale Blue Dot  

Reflected in light's narrow shaft

between two voids:

our planet caught on camera

from the stage of the galaxy's

                                       embrace.

So slender the sunbeam.

So inconsequential the globe.

So like a mote in the satellite's eye.

And when death decrees that I

become one with the earth

And when radio signals no longer

hum the birth of the universe

And when new stars stagnate,

fresh realms refuse to rise

And when our sun implodes

five billion years from now

And when this world flares

into chimera, once more, I will be

                                            home.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor