Category: Birds
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Traversing darkness while moving toward light
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by
I sat with a friend around a fire in our yard We talked of children, the craft of writing, of basketball an ideal job, a feral cat he gave a friend and the one he still feeds on his porch We talked of possums, guinea hens, ticks, raccoons and a hawk that swooped up a…
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If
On cold winter days mom would send you out to play you would watch the birds shiver on phone lines and thought maybe they gathered local gossip through their feet Hardly anyone has a landline anymore birds now shiver on cable TV lines you wonder if they prefer ESPN the Cartoon Network or cable news…
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Reading Isaiah
Do sheep know a good shepherd from a bad shepherd Or follow the woolly ass in front of them And flee the yip and yap of a dog snapping at their heels? “Mount up like eagles” the view is better 1-19-20
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night watchman
The cream colored feral cat that patrols our neighborhood and keeps us safe at night strolls in the rain down the middle of Landon Road without an umbrella Stops and asks what the hell am I doing up this time of night I want to tell him to mind his own business but it’s never…
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Boomer Bovine Blues
Ziploc gladness is a plastic bag full with blueberries cool and sweet to eat while watching cable news Blue like B.B. King riffing in a club waiting for closing time and someone or anyone to take you home Milk the cows of gladness joy in a bucket – butter and cream tug the teats –…
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To a friend with a dying cat
I would tell you about a free kitten given to us when we were poor it got leukemia Cost us all kinds of money we didn’t have and the damn cat died anyway But you don’t want to hear about our expensive, free cat so I won’t tell you how Even though it was sick…
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The New Year’s cat
Gray and white tabby sits on a stump bell around its neck watches me dig roots of dead trees the earth has heaved to the surface Gray and white tabby sits on a stump preening in the sun watches me watch him watching me Gray and white tabby jingles his boredom turns his back walks…
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Father Barzare
Father Barzare blesses 100 gallons of water Father Barzare loads it in a plane Father Barzare crop dusts his little Louisiana parish Father Barzare blesses saint and sinner Father Barzare blesses rich and poor souls Father Barzare blesses the cow, the pig, the chicken, the rat, the insect, snake and worm Father Barzare blesses the…
My husband's poetry 