a silver birch, expanded pregnant with protection a swelling of accordion strata.
I enrobed yesterday in a broad, intricate burl -weighty as skipping stones of regret -gnarled as locks loosed by abandon's winds -sure as shame's lichen grip on a face of shale.
You arrived, tender restraint and reticence, working on wood.
I released -cross cut by the razor edge of your collar bone revealing my residual whirls; grit and grain exposed now to sun's rays -lacquered by the warmth radiating from your palms -burnished into lustrous beauty.
It took me all day, but this poem was inspired by the NaPoWriMo Day 3 challenge to create a “personal universe deck” of 100 words. The words I drew from my deck were “burl”, “clavicle”, “yesterday”, “ruin”, and “striate”.
A Softer Shade of Red 
sure as shame’s lichen grip on a face of shale. My fave!
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Thank you! … it took about a mile of wandering round a lake, mumbling to myself for that line to work itself out. Hahaha 🙂
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Nothing like exercise to jog the mind.
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