By Cliff Saunders

Want to be happier?
Welcome birds to your
vast coral bed of remembrance.

You are assured of getting
your compass of moles,
your weekly copy of available space.

Give your heart a little bit
of soul, a pivotal spin
on the altar of your mountain porch.

Be glad you store oysters
in a log cabin, be happy you find
tree shrews trapped inside cars.

You can touch this cherry
on top of a dog
and a chimney will sing.

Look at the red candle
in your window. It teaches faith,
it answers questions,

and you tempt trouble
whenever you walk
into your garden of dreams.

Add an earth star
to your garden to empower you
to live the life you want.

You are not alone as
your body sucks more sand
from a hand drill, dances

past downtown panhandlers.
Your dog belts out an aria,
clear as a glass eye.

Go seek fire, pedaling
toward your own
green light of excess.

It’s your right to know
how to make a little library
out of plants, out of the dark.

You can’t see it, but it’s
begging you to enter
its house of gold.

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Cliff Saunders is the author of several poetry chapbooks, including Mapping the Asphalt Meadows (Slipstream Publications) and This Candescent World (Runaway Spoon Press). His poems have appeared recently in Atlanta Review, Pedestal Magazine, Lullwater Review, Inscape Journal, The Phoenix, Vagabond City, The Main Street Rag, and Tipton Poetry Journal. Originally from Massachusetts, he now lives in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

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