Wednesday, June 6, 2012

What I saw today . . .


Mr. Rabbit scurrying out from his hiding place 
within the wisteria cave – Rowen long ago 
claimed the cave within as his own, 
but like any soon-to-be 5 year-old,
surely he would welcome this intruder

Sister Squirrel full-bore runs
straight up the maple tree
she calls home – the one shading the picnic 
table with the firepit sitting abandoned 
by the pretend soldiers in civil war garb
who sat round her for warmth just weeks ago,
now cold under the table

A lone deer jogs casually across
the gravel road before me
with no look back

A raccoon runs – ambles, really – 
all roly-poly
first alongside the car
then moving in front –
not so much darting 
as deciding – deciding
that he could make it –
deciding that I would not
kill him with my behemoth 
of steel – not today

Best of all, 
a school bus of finches*
arises as one
from the evening sun-washed
yellow of the wheat field



_____________________
*A schoolbus of finches borrows from an observation by son Ben Cumberledge, that the color of goldfinches would have them better named as school-bus-yellow finches.  An Idyllic Life  Describing them as a ‘schoolbus of finches’ is in keeping with the whimsical tradition of naming clusters or groups of animals and birds based on some presupposed anthropomorphic attribute, such as a murder of crows.  Fun with Words

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