The rat-a-tat yap has finally stopped. What set off her terrier alarm? A neighbor who would do me harm? And when I head home late and get a flat at dark on the country road, should a stranger stop, would I take a ride to my abode? I never used to hesitate. Fear is a sensible trait. Nothing is wrong with caution. But age and the news confuse me into thinking the enemy might be you. “Now we are having beautiful warm windless weather that is very beneficial to me. The sun, a light that for lack of a better word I can only call yellow, bright sulfur yellow, pale lemon gold. How beautiful yellow is!” Vincent Van Gogh Aged faces Bees buzzing in buttercups Cowardice! No, not so. Color of courage in Japan Daffodil’s diseased leaves Egyptian female pharaohs painted in ancient tombs Frogs with yellow bellies hop away and hide Gold the world over How to mark a Heretic Indian merchants Jaundiced skin means yellow fever Yellow Kid journalism Lemons and legal pads Moonlight and marigolds Nazis forced Jews to sew on their sleeves yellow triangles with the star of David Ochre horse painted on a wall at Lascaux Political praxis of Yellow Peril, pineapples; post-it notes Quince Standing in a stunning field of rape singing the “Yellow Rose of Texas,” Sun! star at the center of our solar system, staying stable for another five billion years Taxis, Turmeric, Tonka trucks Urine-stained underwear Visible of all colors--yellow with black--STOP! Wearing a yellow ribbon while waiting for John Wayne Xanthopsia, an eye condition in which objects appear yellow-- why Van Gogh loved yellow so Yellow submarines, where we all live with the Beatles Zinnias in your backyard
|
AuthorNancy Harris McLelland taught creative writing, composition, and literature for over twenty years and Conducted writing workshops for the Western Folklife Center, Great Basin College , and the Great Basin Writing Project . An Elko County native with a background in ranching. McLelland has presented her "Poems from Tuscarora" Both at daytime and evening events at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko. Her essay, "Border Lands: Cowboy Poetry and the Literary Canon" is in the anthology Cowboy Poetry Matters . Categories |