Submitted by Vanessa Shields
Submitted to https://penableme.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/poetry-thursday-competition/
the dustings
by Vanessa Shields
the wind shows herself
by leaning her shoulder on
purple coneflower petals
they receive her caress
push deeper into earth
spread roots like stories
and so dreams lean into the soft shy
underparts of our arms – a vulnerable
garden made of skin
we are sturdy flowers – coralbells
in bloom for flitting hummingbirds
weigelas – low-maintenance stunners
embracing butterfly whispers
moving secrets from the wind
on their scale-strong wings
and so dreams choose us
by the dustings of
wind’s secrets
exclaimed on
verbena lips
excavated in
the shadows of
the thriving coleus
lift up your arms –
sentient dreams bloom
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 