New Poem

Vernal Study

Past the Rattlesnake grass &

Wild Pea,

the waft of Chamomile crushed

underfoot-

Through the canary corridor 

of Scotch Broom, stopped

stock-still to watch

in the path ahead,

A flight of Swallows, busy

at a mud puddle.

One thousand pellets of mud carried by beak

to create a nest equals

one thousand trips between

this puddle

and the underside of that bridge.

Fortunate observer,

so quiet I can hear the air

being mussed by their wings.

And farther along, the trickery of fields

allowed to go fallow-

to become inviting havens 

for rabbit warren and clutch of eggs,

only to be mown down by the indifferent thresher,

bees still working the flowers of the uprooted

Wild Radish.

Dizzying change, Spring.

The fleeting voluptuary

of the Bearded Iris, their feather-boa throats inside peachy

heads. And like a favored, satin camisole 

they fray at the edges, & fade

to mauve.

Too, the colony of nests

under the bridge will crumble.

The new birds already able to soar,

to sip from the water’s surface

mid-flight,

no obligation to stop.