Loners

• la4 = last month of the year = December
• drums = festivals and bustle of all the events of the end of the year
• this form sets up the first three lines as description/hypothesis with a conclusion in the final line of three words
• duckweed is a plant that has no root means without place, wandering: unaccustomed meeting
• guest is a description for not belonging, visiting, ill-at-ease
• from ocean and fields = breadth of human experience

Sentiments watching the sunset

1.
Remaining light sunset high contrast evening clouds
Sparse trees darkgreen lightgreen cawing nestward crows
December drums steadily beat push year end
To welcome spring
Hidden side passing days more white hair
Whole life floating boat dispatched to horizon
Experienced all manifold changes accustomed to duckweed 
Make home anywhere

2.
Against window alone watching sun set west
Evening scene bare trees pains guest heart
Law season go around cycle end begin
Ocean field past events find in dreams


Confederate rose
Near Yongan, the wartime capitol of Fujian. Japanese bombed almost every day. That morning at 9 o'clock the siren signaled coming planes. So my colleagues and I fled to the country side--guerrilla warfare style--because the Japanese bombed cities. We heard the sound of toppling and wreckage. When the sirens sounded long and slow, we knew the planes were gone. We returned to find our offices and buildings obliterated into piles of rubble. There remained one lone hibiscus standing in the yard, miraculously not destroyed.

Catastrophe over yard garden everywhere dusty mess
Broken branches fallen leaves all over ground
Confederate rose remains one sign of spring
Flowering branches weak flimsy tilt and droop
Tender blossoms delicate buds comprehend soft hearts
Pale pink subtle smiles usher in dusk