All day the sky teases –
bubbling storm clouds,
then sunlight around dinnertime,
dark squall finally
blowing in from the ocean.

Gusty deluge whips redwoods
into a drenched frenzy,
rust-colored needles cast down
to become one more startling hue
in a soggy compost pastiche.

Night brings banshee winds
that lift and rattle
windows and shingles,
command a second quilt.

By morning, this cabin,
a water-tight golden ark,
shelters and warms,
offers a good book, crackling fire,
hot cup of coffee.
—

Jennifer Lagier has published ten books of poetry and in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies. She taught with California Poets in the Schools and is now a retired college librarian/instructor. Jennifer is a member of the Italian American Writers Association and Rockford Writers Guild. She co-edits the Homestead Review and maintains websites for Ping Pong: A Literary Journal of the Henry Miller Library, The Monterey Poetry Review, and misfitmagazine.net. She also helps coordinate the Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium’s Second Sunday Reading Series. Visit her website at: jlagier.net