Sample Poems by Bill Wunder

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Welcome to Paradise

Pink flamingoes and neon palm trees
hang on a Bahama-blue wall

under the glare of fluorescent light
in a laundromat named Paradise.

Like a knot of snakes,
a tattooed couple writhes

on a yellow-plastic chair,
Jimmy Buffett crackles

from an overhead speaker
but even he can’t relieve the boredom

watching tumbling suds
or quiet the industrial music

of fifty hulking washers
slosh with abandon,

or silence the whir
of dervish spin cycles

in a kingdom of the dispossessed
where Tide packets are currency

and everyone is equal
to the sum of their quarters,

where no one is punished
for their sad stories

and everything
is made clean again.            

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That Red Dress

At sixteen I dreamed
one day you’d tantalize

in stiletto heels, that tight-
red dress would reveal cleavage’s

offered fruit,
that your breasts would

bounce on the off-
beat, that the fabric would struggle

to tame the swagger
of those hips and flare

around those thighs,
hang loose, sashay to its own

captivating rhythm.
Your secretive glance

swarms in my head
like the murmur of bees, leaving 

the scent of lavender and chaos,
sweet chaos.    

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Passion in Tyler State Park
                                                                                                 
Swallows race                                                                         
to open-mouthed young                                                           
                                                                                                  
in the cob-webbed rafters
of the cedar boat house.

The feeding frenzy
takes a voyeuristic back seat

as the birds watch lovers
entwined on a park bench.

Even birds recognize lust
in this atmosphere of tongues

where restraint is abandoned,
swollen senses tremble,

and everything takes flight
into a carnal sky.

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To a Hummingbird
                              --for Shirley
Avian acrobat,
    you swerve,
swoop
    and whir—
 trace high-wire
    arabesques
in a stupefied sky.
    Unpredictable
emissary
    of the spectacular,
you hover
    at our feeder
then arrow off
    into the impetuous
afternoon.         

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The Meteoric Arc of Relationships

Two meteors collide in deep space.
Once unquenchable, untamed,

arc-welding a glorious seam across the heavens,
only to end up unannounced, nuisance-

creating friction, a spectacular crashing,
cooling to an unwanted lump

of iron and nickel that has lost its ardor.
Who can explain such a thing?

A superstar igniting the cosmos,
then waiting across time to be discovered

by a high school science club.
So, imagine my surprise when our carts bumped

near the pre-packaged salads in the produce aisle.
One moment undisturbed in sadness’ dark loam,

the next—
pulled into the light.