Waiting for the Ice Storm

I finally crept out of my burrow this afternoon 

to go to the store for some milk, popcorn, and a cheap pizza, 

stuff intended to tide me over until tomorrow, 

when I'll make a more massive assault 

on my grocery budget. A lot of people had the same

notion because the lines at check-out showed

that pre-blizzard frenzy had set in.

For days, it's been miserably cold, with sub-zero

temps and wind chill forcing people, like me,

to dig deep into their larder, until all that was left

was a jar of sauerkraut and a tin of sardines.

The weather was not as cold and people came out

to go get their own provisions before the

icy rain started. Milk, bread, and stick-to-your ribs

goodies were the order of the day.

Then everyone went home to watch the 

football game, Colts vs Broncos.

Crystal and Azure

Outside, the day is silver

The rain makes a crystal curtain

between that time of dreams 

and daylight.

Everyone needs a dream

to make the disappointments tolerable,

Something to reach for.

I reach for you, pull you to me, in me.

Your warmth spreads inside

Until I burst into stars

and rise, laughing,

to kiss your azure eyes.

Rainy Day/Sipping Chai

I sit, sipping chai,

gazing out the window

at the gray, drizzly morning.

I think of you last evening 

as you strode across the room.

I caught a glimpse of your bare back

above the waistband of your jeans,

And longed to touch your smooth skin,

To feel its taut silk beneath my fingertips

where it curves along your spine.

So close. So far away, you may as well 

be walking on the moon.

But the warm smell of you,

Even in my imagination, 

brings comfort to the cold rain

of my days.

Wintery Shades of Gray

It has rained for about two-and-a-half days straight.

 I love the humidity with the mild air and would 

be happy if this would be our winter, but sadly,

temperatures that have been in the fifties are dropping -- 

Boo! back into the thirties. The ground is sodden

with large pools of standing water in 

the Coke Field and elsewhere. 

Nearby, the sidewalk was clotted with leaves

faded into suitably dire shades of gray.

I liked the way the leaves related to each other, creating

interesting patterns of negative and positive space,

and especially enjoyed the swirls and whorls

the rain water made as it flowed amid the leaves.

Textured Tuesday: Crystal Screen

On my way to the grocery Sunday afternoon, 

I spotted a screen that had been blown out of a window 

during the overnight storms. Its beauty stopped me in my tracks.

Droplets of water clung to the underside of the screen, creating a pattern

of clear circles against its black grid. Then, as the weight of the accumulated

water caused the screen to sag, the puddle below acquired a pattern

of dashed lines. The best bit, though, was when I bent down

to see the shadows the screen had cast on the puddle:

there they were, the beads of water, both reflected and reflecting 

upward, revealing the gray sky and the grid that held them,

that kept them from joining the pooled water just below.

Navel Gazing: Icy Confusion

As an ambulance drove by my home this evening, 

I noticed its lights reflected off an icy glaze developing 

on the rain puddles. The temperatures were in the fifties yesterday,

and one could see clouds, blue-black with moisture, approaching

from the southwest. It began raining during the late

afternoon and kept up for twenty-four hours. I walked to the

store, took some pictures, noting that the forsythia bush near

my door had developed some buds. Poor thing, I thought.

Along with the rain, the temperatures began to drop, 

so the buds are for naught. How many times can a plant

do this before it does not bloom at all? 

The City Daily Photo portal chose to not have a Theme Day 

for January, opting instead to host a day of exploration 

into how our work has changed since we began blogging.

Me? I'm still trying to figure out how to get my camera 

to focus on my subject rather than its background.

No change, I'm afraid. I'm trying to become braver about

including human subjects in my photography.

Again, only marginal improvement.

I began this blog in order to get into the habit

discipline of sticking words together

in some coherent fashion. Perhaps my editing

has improved, my vocabulary more varied.

Maybe my images are a bit more refined because

I am looking more for the art in every day things

than I am seeking just to record them. I dunno.

Click on the link above to view the CDP participants.

A Rainy Winter Day

I walked to the grocery Thursday afternoon, thinking I would return home 

before the rain started. Wrong. I could have walked home, 

but decided to catch the bus because I had a package 

I didn't want to get wet. The rain will wash away the remains of 

snow that had fallen since Christmas.

For those who think that snow in the Midwest looks

like those prettified pictures of happy people riding in a horse-drawn

sleigh, the picture below shows a mound of snow at our local

shopping center. Created by a snow plough to clear the parking lot,

such mounds form the highest elevations throughout 

the Midwest, until finally melted by the sun sometime in April.