TOP contribution - Sonnet

Totally Optional Prompts this week asked for a sonnet. This is a form I tried once and lately I've been thinking about sonnets again. Here is one posted earlier at my main site. More to come.

Tug of War

Life pulling hard, pulls, reaching, straining,
As daily life wears and erodes my soul.
Life not steady, must be ever changing,
Yet a steady life is my major goal.

Work intrudes, interrupts the daily grind,
Thoughts of waiting future my daily breath.
Evenings weep, bittersweet slices of rind,
Eight to five void, a recurring small death.

Passions igniting, life filled with hope.
Gardens explode with energy, burst with dreams.
The span between, fragile, a bridge of rope,
Daily life hinting at more than it seems.

Life, many moments tried, judged and chanced,
Life inhabited now, richly enhanced.

A Listener's Thoughts at the Opera

Pretty well threshed out with Baroque music,
the stage holds two colleagues,
two stratospheric voices.
I do not know them, of course, but one blink and our
Duchess and our Susanna are released,
moving their listeners to comfort and good will.

Umbrellas

I dreamed of umbrellas last night but don't remember anything beyond the umbrella image. So - yet another lesson on what happens when I don't have a note pad next to my bed. But umbrellas continue to linger in my mind today so I fall back on the tried and true structure that always reveals a surprising thought or two.

SMOG

Umber mist in
Muggy heat;
Battles with traffic and
Reving engines
Elevate driving stress.
Lost by wrong turns,
Lost but eventually found my way back.

All clear now with cleansing winds.

One Deep Breath - Moonstruck

Muted moon whispers

Seductive passion's vocal

Longings. I hunger.

Untitled

I drift
to bed at 0400 and
awaken at 0700.
I drift.

Not a workday yet,
yet here I am and trapped.
Desk a mess -
almost a disguise.
Office worse and strangling.

I hide away, donning
dirty clothes
not my own.