Two Poems by John Harold Olson

 

Xenia 

 

 Ash grove 

Birch grove 

Riverbed frozen deep with snow 

 Brewing tea 

Winchester leaning Against a boulder 

 The deer, doe and daughter, 

 approach first 

Not timid but curious 

 Ravens fly in a pairs through the smoke 

 Foxes disappearing in the pines 

 

Drink the steamy tea 

Time to go back 

 

 Xenia opens the back door.

 “I saw you come down from the road,” she said, “like a big orange bear. 

Take off your boots and have some soup.”

 

 

Whippoorwill 

 

 sat in the evening light with my tea,

 heard a whippoorwill through the open door, 

way off in the desert. 

 Used to spend this time in the hard middle 

 But that scene is done. 

Now I listen to the bird. 

 If you close your eyes, You can hear it

John Harold Olson - Is a retired Special Education teacher in Las Vegas. Transitioning to being a hospice volunteer.