For Shay

I fought beak and claw

through a grey and shuttered landscape

to find the Land of Poets

and enter in.

I found many poets

happily penning poems there

in the Garden of Golden Words.

The first time I read Shay,

she had someone

toss a dead squirrel 

through the open window 

of a passing pickup.

Whoa!

I sat up and took notice.

Shay showed me how far and wide

and sky-roofed a poem could be.

She said, Take a situation, 

or a character,

and ask "what if...?"

In the Land of Poets,

hers is the rare voice

that speaks

in a class by itself.

No one writes like Shay.

So this one's for you, my friend,

just to say

thank you for 

your wonderful poems

that light up all my days.

for Shay at Real Toads, with thanks, as she leaves the Garden. (But we know where to find you!) Since I read that first poem in 2010, I have not missed a single one. Thankfully, Shay will still be writing, and around, which is a huge relief.