Two Poems by Larry Thomas

Art by Chuck Collins

Hopscotch

(a stone’s throw from Presidio)

Standing in line

in their folklorico dresses

of red, yellow, orange,

green, blue, indigo,

and bright violet,

they make a perfect spectrum.

One at a time they hop,

flopping their pigtails,

touching their upper lips

with their pointed tongues.

The figure of hot pink chalk

on which they hop

is laid out in the shape

of a door, today at least

they could care less

what it opens to.

Today each is worriless,

taking her hops in order,

picking up the stone

without a bobble.

With Flying Colors

(Big Bend Sunrise)

Out of the east

the sun wobbles

like a drunk house painter

jerking buckets of raspberry

and canary yellow paint,

swaying them recklessly

to the awkward rhythm

of his gait, sloshing the paint

shockingly all over

the raised and bunched together

bosoms of clouds,

dazzling the blue-

black wings of ravens,

making of the firmament

the posed-for-a-snapshot

faces of a thousand clowns.