IRON TREES

How are you feeling right now?  
Umbrella handle cranks clockwise  
on back deck  
facing forest 
I’m a little homesick.   

Then the chain 
Marrying the aluminum umbrella  
with the locking pin 
unchains me.  

It swings back and forth 

chime 

and chime  

again. 

I remember  
ocean beaches back home 
grew iron trees 
with halyard branches 
that strummed the same tune 
for a canopy of flag foliage.  

Sure 
ocean water is captive  
to the shore. 
But ocean sounds   
escape inland   
wherever metal chains 
meet aluminum poles.  

My ears are home.  

–David O’Boyle writes a tanka of poems. Check em’ out. He writes short stories, children’s books and novels too.