there’s war in the house

                   in the yard battles on the deck

debris from skirmishes smothers

              the path         inside

the floor bears the scars

            of defeat  the kitchen table

needs a tank to clear it

this is what I get for ignoring

            an image

wind was the original aggressor

with the force  of it’s explosion

it scattered California grass land snow

         all over the yard

maybe if I’d taken

      a picture of the blossoms covering the

      ground I could have saved myself

I didn’t

the war spread into the house

  puppy got into the recycling basket

  sent grenades of paper to cover the floor

  files for 2013 blew paper up all over desks

all over tables

I did gather the shards the bombs left

  into piles, categories for the CPA

this last is a piece of hope

  perhaps this is the one

  that will be a deduction

    Janice DeRuiter 2014