Category: Birds
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hillside morning haiku
ground hog on wood pile red-tailed hawk perched in dead tree food channel network 9-17-20
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40 Degrees
Poem #4 of a Concrete Mary series Against the chill of morning I put on shoes and my son’s jacket Robins and sparrows scavenge seeds Call back and forth from fence to dewy ground In high grass along the fence A lone cricket chirps Squirrels and chipmunks in fur coats Do not mind the approach…
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Lawn ornaments (Mary #2)
(poem two from a possible Concrete Mary series) Like a drippy faucet in the next room The old gutter leaks slow on aluminum awning In the drizzle, chipmunks scurry Unafraid at the feet of a plastic owl Immovable as a straw man crucified In a field to protect ears of corn Concrete Mary still holds…
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Patio meditation for 9/11
Sitting on the back patio squirrel churs on fence Plastic owl on wall stares empty-eyed at the morning Red birdhouse in neighbor’s yard sits empty waiting for spring We have boxes to take to the new house Movers won’t come until Wednesday for furniture Overcast skies hide the sun, threaten rain Concrete Mary stands hands…
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Hoosier hospitality
To the ground hog that lives under our son’s garden shed This is your eviction notice we will shovel mothballs in your burrow tomorrow You may move next door there is plenty of room under the neighbor’s deck Don’t take this personal but Hoosier Hospitality has come to Pittsburgh 9-9-20
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Deep in Green
no wind cools summer robin sits on brick insects drone in trees in a pile by the curb squirrels rummage pine cones crow calls in park _____ deep in green where no one walks color trumpets over here it’s protest along the fringe emerging from shadows its beauty it’s stamina demanding to be seen 8-30-20
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Feathered corpses
Where have all the finches, sparrows and mockingbirds gone? I haven’t heard a chickadee for several days. Are cicadas too much competition; where can we go this time of year to escape insect sirens wailing? The woodpecker, wren and robin still visit, but my favorites have fled. I’d put out birdseed, if the squirrels would…
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meditation on dying
before the rain before you settle in for the night you walk familiar streets admire mowed lawns limbs trimmed stacked along curbs waiting for the city to haul away _____ sweaty shirt sticks to back and belly trees touch arching green over quiet streets silence thrums just before cicadas roar _____ kudzu pulls roof and…
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On hearing of my uncle’s death
footprints lead through dust in yard angel print arch trail ends hawk in dead pine ascend unexpectedly upward 8-23-20
My husband's poetry 