Sunshine gains strength,

winter wanes, days grow longer.

Palest green begins to gentle the stark

horizon of sleeping branches.

Dandelions brighten dormant grass.

Ah, birdsong!

In my garden,

I tug off my boots,

peel off my socks,

dance as freely

as yellow daffodils

waving in the breeze.

Damp soil between my toes,

I stop,

turn my face toward the sky,

eyes closed,

fingertips reaching for the clouds.

Refreshed,

exhilarated,

I hose off my feet,

the water still chilly.

I grin – the season

for flip flops underway.

Texas Lantana

The velvety clusters of orange and yellow

bloom as the earth warms in April.

The brilliance shakes me awake

from bleak hibernation.

I pluck a leaf,

inhale its sharp aroma –

nature’s smelling salts.

Each flower shaped liked a herald’s trumpet,

I can almost hear a joyous call

to birds and butterflies –

“Come one, come all

to nectar’s wellspring!”

The colors, so autumnal,

burst forth at winter’s end

in fields, in thickets,

on gravelly hills,

brightening the gray bark,

surrounding scrub.

The blazing globes

presage summer’s intensity.

Like a Canary Singing in the Garden

Stalwart, green leaves upright,

the daffodil blooms,

overshadowed by ornamental kale,

surrounded by showy pansies.

Saucy!

I smile,

snap a photo

with my iPhone.

That’s how I want to be.

Unique, bold.

I’d like my smile to make others smile,

my ideas to blossom.

I’d like someone

to take my picture in a garden,

surrounded by friends in spring finery.

Sylvia Riojas Vaughn has work pending in an anthology of poets living in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area.  Her work has appeared inRed River Review, Parousia Christian Magazine,Triadæ, Lifting the Sky: Southwestern Haiku & Haiga, Texas Poetry Calendar,HOUSEBOAT, Beechwood Review, The Applicant, Diálogo, Label Me Latina/o, Somos en escrito: The Latino literary online magazine,Desde Hong Kong: Poets in conversation with Octavio Paz, and numerous other anthologies and journals. She has been selected as a Houston Poetry Fest Juried Poet three times. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee, she belongs to the Dallas Poets Community.

The post Poems by Sylvia Riojas Vaughn first appeared on Prachya Review.