Wind Chimes / Cardinals in Red by Michael Lee Johnson

Wind Chimes (V3)

The wind chimes,
silver-tongued
on the balcony today,
different sounds—

cool, metallic laughter—
in all different directions.
My thoughts chase
after them.




Cardinals in Red

Cardinals don’t return to those untinged without red.
They pass seeds—love and survival—
those Indiana Hoosiers in gyms and fields.
They perch outside the yellow cornfields,
near the husk of forest green.
Where the seasons start,
connecting farm fields to winter's chill.
Worn slippers at my bedside.

My innards need to be repaired.
Old farmhouses lean towards ruin,
shadow slinger—devils, angels passed.
Covered bridges south grow colder as winter,
settles in, sleet and sorrow weeping tears.
Cardinals in red, of Rockville, Indiana
themselves the brightest backdrop,
theater shows in the snow.
Only cardinals return to those places.
Those places are colored in red.

Michael Lee Johnson lived in Canada for ten years during the Vietnam era. Today, he is a poet in the greater Chicagoland area, IL. He has 403-plus YouTube poetry videos. Michael Lee Johnson is an internationally published poet in 47 countries, a song lyricist with several published poetry books, and a nominee for 8 Pushcart Prize awards and 8 Best of the Net nominations. He has over 678 published poems.