2 poems by ed ahern

BEING IGNORED

It’s refreshing to be ignored.
When coupled horseshoe crabs hold fast against waders’ feet.
When Virginia Creeper surges over mowed grass.
When young rabbits stare back without fear.
When cats in heat jailbreak to waiting lovers.
When salmon jump dams to spray their milt.
When I’m irrelevant to the process.
Tell me again how important we are.

CHANCE ENCOUNTERS

Shiny pebbles in the stream,
appealing flickers in the flow.
Never knelt to wet my knees,
and watched them tumble away.
Agate and pyrite, gneiss and amber,
untouched, unknown and memorable
We seldom even spoke.

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Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had a hundred seventy poems and stories published so far, and three books. His collected fairy and folk tales,The Witch Made Me Do It, a novella The Witches’ Bane, and his collected fantasy stories, Capricious Visions.  He works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of five review editors.