Elizabeth I. Riseden

Cinq Poésies

 

 

Mulberry

I snuggle under the wide
umbrella canopy,
hung heavy with immature berries,
dream my grandfather Dolph.

Mulberry. Mysterious tree.
of delicate white cluster-net flowers,
pungent scent,
banquet for silk worms,

You’re as close to Grandpa
as I can be.
His cabin boy soul loved
to plant you in this high desert,
your strong legacy’s
still here a century later.

 

 

 

Labyrinth

 

Step without haste
See your feet move
In, then, to the jumbled core---
An apple unsure if ripe scarlet green
or sick puce.

At the next intersection---
six purple shades--
tenderest spring violet to
purple-black of Harpy’s seduction
Fathomless haunts---

 

 

 

Riches

 

I sat my twisted limbs
on the silk rug’s lilies/

Now I soothe
my ruptured nerves
as I sit on the treasure,
while I struggle
to fit braces
that keep me moving.
such beauty propels me forward.

 

 

 

Miners’ Gardens

 

Shasta daisies,
perfectly chaste ladies
converse with evening’s
Japanese
orange-bulbed lanterns
in front of Virginia creeper.
Climbing roses scale
house and fence.
Cabbage roses frame
back doors, near
delphiniums’ lanky blues concert.
Corn and squash,
radish and chard
carrot and cucumber

 

 

 

Seven Courses

 

They come to me---my mother's family.
Adolph, suicide at eighteen. Motive mysterious,
though tied in family lore to Grandfather's
silicosis death, his strangling on his work.
Desert mining¹s harsh frontier challenges grandmother
and her four remaining children

Poetry every Saturday.

Music joy
feasts in sorrow.
multi-coursed life
I embrace you.
 

 

 

Elizabeth I. Riseden

was a Nevada native and third generation resident of Ely, Nevada. She was last domiciled in Carson City. Before her passing, Liz had completed Skyline Edgy, an eastern Nevada-centered memoir excerpted in DM. Too, Liz was DM's very first contributor and one of its closest friends, launching poetry at us from all directions, always with a warm note and a knowing wink. Her poetry also appeared in Tattoo Highway. She was last domiciled in Carson City, with its Sierra panorama, alpine meadow and plentiful wildlife; her family, and exotic travel in between.