September

A Work in Progress
75

A petal gently fell from a blossom

as if parachuting to the ground

without sound 

not like an apple thudding from above

through viscous air scented with a sea breeze

of salt and seaweed

not like the screech of a guided missile

the frightening wail of a diving Stuka

the bang of a bazooka

A dahlia petal fell

He watched it fall in silence

then turned to the problems of the day

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2025

Reaching for Odessa, Part VII
Donal Awakes

A Work in Progress
74

At dawn awash in real light not electric

after a night becalmed Donal noticed dew drops

sparkling in sunlight in the sailboat’s attic

a metaphor high up in the shroud tops.

A well-positioned web with little hope of flies

a spider’s food supply at risk far from land

but a spider can wait weeks before it dies

while a soldier in a trench must make a last stand.

A spider existing aloft bereft its supply chain

showed Donal the way to slay the minotaur

destroy his supply lines so he’d have to proclaim

some kind of victory to explain the slaughter.

And then his spell broken and with his end near

An uprising makes the minotaur disappear.

So Donal set sail with spider webs glistening

giving him a compass to steer west-northwestward

shouting defiance with no one listening

for he was alone going purposefully forward

Irishly planning programming a master graph

showing nodes and connections of a war machine

allowing discoveries without any math

because visualization lets human eyes key in

to high value targets on a cinema screen

handheld in the field by a wounded warrior

able to guide stealthy weapons in between

defenders attacking without fear or favor.

Reaching for Odessa by a circuitous route

sunshine on his shoulder his mind astute.

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2025

Reaching for Odessa - Part VI
Catullus Becalmed

A Work in Progress
73

You must love words how they sound what they say

How they make life meaningful everyday

How relationships start when words entangle

Enclose two people in an unseen bangle

That loops from eye to mind and mind to eye

Biochemistry making one laugh or cry

Words can do whatever words say cannot be done

Digitized their meaning becomes an impression

Meaning maybe more or less what was meant when said

Interpreted by algorithms that when all done

Ascribe a weight to words before compression

Fed to streaming feeds that are widely read

As all Rome knows words get away with murder

Nobody believes the truth anymore

A design of despots or just how it is?

Democracy dismantled girder by girder

Caesar reinterpreting all rules of law 

No Cato to stand between us and the abyss

Words cannot express as the saying goes         

How incomprehensible collective fear is

Caesar’s ambition is endless his ego’s exploding

He’s continually testing what damage he’ll do

Will there be someone he’ll say “Et tu” to?

Will words in the Bill of Rights still be adhered to?

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                         2025

Reaching for Odessa, Part V

A Work in Progress
72

He’d clambered on deck of the small sailboat

tethered the raft he’d made

shook off fair warning from the gods

found a following wind like a trade

making the shrouds shriek

urging him on to Odessa

which God it was had held him in her thrall

had treated his motive with derision

how many greater warriors had she seen

than he, liars braggarts bigots all

a following wind dispelled indecision

he steered for what might be not what might have been

what might be might not be epic

no shore in sight uncharted waters

going where the wind directed

all unrehearsed destination unspecific

always onward and if the wind falters

he’ll lie becalmed his thoughts uninterrupted

he ran before the gale not thinking just sailing

watching for dangers scanning the sea

knowing it safer to ride out the storm

than risk breaking the tiller by turning

upwind he was a Viking by ancestry

he’d let this wind let his future form

this wind he knew was a gift from the gods

to slay a minotaur first he must find it

a modern version operating everywhere

no longer human not even half, a demigod

supply chain of explosives, engines, rockets

profitable attrition all going nowhere

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2025

Autumn Dusk

September comes as no surprise October always follows

memories compounded over many years enlarge or fade

when our inner eyes awaken as visions jump from hollows

 where moments that have laid in wait are now remade.

Old embarrassments won’t dislodge with a shake of the head 

youthful follies perturbing old age must finally be filed

for certainty of winter means thinking ahead

preparing for Spring repairing tools tasks that have piled.

Sedums glow in the half-light they carapace like brains

blossoms not turning white but getting pinker with age 

hard purple plums ripening in bowls off-white garlic braids

drying on a sill showing success there’s been no shortage.

We relive past time to our delight or to our detriment

memory is both a sweet and sour condiment.

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                         2025

Reaching for Odessa IV

A Work in Progress
71

Her questions were rhetorical

she answered them herself

he heard her speaking Greek

which he suddenly understood

Strophe antistrophe

she questioned then answered

explaining with an epode

hooting in his mind

An owlet and a raven

a snake coiled around her waist

she put him to the test

told him he’d have no rest

Dark matter matters

separates life from death

dark matter moves us

in ways she would not tell

When your brain expands you touch it

its dark matter makes you tough it

trips you when you fall 

ignores you when you call

What’s that about a minotaur?

tyrants rise and fall

shunned by all

You won’t find him in Odessa

go no further on your quest

you have an education

that’s why you feel oppressed

leave this island with my blessing

do not return the raven croaked

do not, do not 

There were footprints in the sand

where she had stood

walked from him into the dark

come daylight he’d build a raft from wood

now that he understood

Inspired to make a raft from driftwood planks

tied with rope he found on the beach

he paddled away from the island into the open sea

trusting that just as in mythology

he’d find safe harbor

instead, he found the craft he’d steered 

at anchor awaiting a crew…

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                        2025