Category: Birds
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Lady of the lake
On the far side of water twenty feet from shore she stood looking at me look at her looking at me look at her… wondering why I came each morning and stood in the same place counting the name of God five times on each knuckle. I wondered why she was not standing knee deep…
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QAnon childhood inoculation
squinting into nightfall pink/orange on gray clouds eyelids tired of trying gum grows tasteless throw it out the window mom said, Albert, if a bird eats your gum, it will expand in their belly and explode for a silly moment I feel remorse and then tell myself I’ve never seen a bird drop from the…
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at our daughter’s house in Locust Grove, GA
Daffodils bloom in January, a dozen cardinals gather on the lawn. When the back door opens, take flight and chatter in the woods. Mom would like it here. Dad would like anywhere he can watch the football playoffs undisturbed and fall asleep by halftime in a comfortable chair. I wait to be happy doing what…
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haiku rain
tree frogs harmonize descants, trills and drumming rain listen under eaves 1-30-23
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A Double kind of negative morning
In the creek behind our daughter’s house greening undergrowth, hyperactive birds, tree frog choral sound track. In a distant somewhere, a fleeing train calls out it has room for one more. Me…I sit on our daughter’s patio adrift in an ambience of now not going no where 1-31-23
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Haikus for drummers
peckish woodpeckers syncopate quiet morning a-ratta-tat-tat drum solo repeats over here, I’m over here a-ratta-tat-tat high up in a tree ancient mating rhythm song a-ratta-tat-tat deep in greening woods where prying eyes can’t see them a-ratta-tat-tat 2-4-23
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What snapping turtles can teach us about politics
Adrift offshore a dole of turtles try to sunbathe on the same log. It rolls over each time one climbs up. They refuse to stop jostling and spinning for a place in the sun adrift offshore in a shallow, muddy pond 2-9-23
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A Lover’s quarrel?
They swim in tandem waddle up on shore and into the woods Soon it sounds like Daisy and Donald arguing on The Wonderful World of Disney Daisy swims away to the left Donald swims away to the right both trying to get in the last squawk 2-10-23
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Wars and rumors of wars
Goose Pond is loud this morning. Resident geese don’t want to share. Homeless geese land on the far shore. Threats are honked back and forth. Honking cries escalate. Necks straighten and lean. Combatants close distance. Visitors retreat, rise up and fly. War averted this morning. Where there is unused, open space and unfilled needs, the…
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Advice for the artist
Gather mushrooms and berries in woods. Eat at a table with the poor. Walk among the brambles where no one goes. Crawl through the underbrush. The wolf stalks the well-tread path and the popular watering hole. 5-13-25