Writer's Circle prompt: Love sonnet or simply love

 
Outside Philadelphia
 
I fear to say just who I love, as most
Have died or gone away.  Let’s talk instead
About the land I love, though coast to coast
World round, so many people face pure dread.
 
Here green trees dominate as summer reigns
and rain is plenty for grass and bushes, too.
I love to see the hills above the plain
And city below, with buildings in a queue.
 
We don’t get tornadoes or flood and fires
(I whisper this so I won’t change our luck)
We help those whose condition is dire
So many drowned and missing I’m dumbstruck.
 
As I aged more people I love have died
I pray the land, the beautiful land, survives.

 and

Stay at home with me
by Susan
 
Take care when standing in the sun today—
the glowing orb’s too hot to play a part
in vigils. True, more cars will come this way,
but sun will paint you lobster red as art.
 
And I would rather you stayed home with me.
While I make dinner, you can hear the news
about the heat whose waves we almost see
while you are safe inside this afternoon.
 
I love your commitment to peace, justice,
democracy, and education, but
wish you cared more for safety and for bliss
yes—bliss—as we both eat and play, you nut!
 
Let sun be your reason to stay at home.
Let sun disguise the point of this whole poem.
 
 
 (Note: Thinking of Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia.)

© 2025 Susan L. Chast

Writer's Circle Prompts.

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