Four Trees Eight Eagles by Leo Fautsch

 

Winter Day

 

After a year’s practice
The sun comes in kindly

Warming the floor and book-
shelves, blinding the computer screen
Through the shades–as if nothing there

Outside, dozing the snow and invisible birds
Given time, climaxed ice will soon be gone

Dusted books shine as ever
Human knowledge fused with terrible accents

Christmas is over, the clock begins ticking again
An entire new year awaits to be stuffed

 

 

 

 

Last Night Snow

 

The room is bright
No light is on
Neither any trace of the sun

I peep through window blinds
See the footprints of our mailman
The whole morning is gone

 

 

(Winter Day and Last Night Snow were previously published in Third Wednesday Magazine on March 23, 2025)

 

 

Happy Week at the Hotel

 

A doormat welcomes me
in front of the elevator
at the hotel I’ve just checked in
It says Welcome Sunday

I meet Welcome Monday
early in the morning
noticing some coffee stains
on the replaced doormat

Welcome Tuesday looks brighter
as my mood becomes lighter
When business negotiations go smoother
coffee smells stronger and better

A darker stain appears
on Welcome Wednesday
I suspect it came from
a dog poop after cleanup

Thursday turns out a bad day
Meetings are long and
talks sound dry
Welcome Thursday is just a mockery

Everyone loves Friday
A pretty girl
I’ve never met before
stands on Welcome Friday

All’s well that ends well
I see strands of long hairs
on Welcome Saturday
before leaving the hotel

 

 

 

 

Lighthouse

 

You were here and there
everywhere, once upon a
time. No one knows how
many of you existed before

I saw one of you today
with my own eyes, yet
only on my computer screen,
beautiful as ever before

A little path winding to
access your isolated soul,
comforting so many alive
and passed-aways before

Standing on a piece of barren land
silhouetted under the sunset,
this one of you made me hold my breath,
admiring all of you more than ever before

 

 

 

 

The Last Image

 

It is all here
Beheld by involuntary eyes
A collied plane and helicopter
An instantly huge fireball in the air
Falling on luminous water
Behind the Washington Monument
Over five dozen lives
Turned into such frozen forms

Just a moment before
They were homecoming passengers
Children with moms
Athletes and coaches
Glorious medals in hands or dreams
Along with many yet unidentified others
On the first night of Lunar New Year
Of 2025. All perished.

 

 

 

 

About the author:

Zhu Xiao Di is the author of Thirty Years in a Red House: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth in Communist China (memoir), Tales of Judge Dee (novel), Leisure Thoughts on Idle Books (essays in Chinese), and poems at [Alternate Route], Assignment, Blue Unicorn, Down in the Dirt, Eratio, Eunoia Review, MSU Roadrunner Review, Nebo, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Poetry Hall, The Beatnik Cowboy, The Crank, Third Wednesday, Toasted Cheese, and WestWard Quarterly, as well as Heathentide Orphans 2024. He contributed to Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child (anthology).

 

In the artist’s words:

Leo Fautsch is a Tucson, Arizona based writer and photographer. His work has appeared in various publications. He also has a BA Degree in Communications from Metropolitan State University in St Paul, Minnesota.

He is currently working inhis website at: journalofanaveragejoe.com