First warm day

Posted by Dave Bonta on March 18, 2009 (last modified at 8:22 pm, 3/18/09)

First warm day.
I sit in the shade closing one eye
then the other.

*

This phoebeing—
even the pants on the line
seem to get the rhythm.

*

Vicious groundhog fight.
The victor stands still & lets the flies
land on his face.

*

Fur in the air—
the cattails
are shedding.

*

As slow as spring
on the half-naked dead elm,
a fox squirrel’s tail.

*

The vulture’s shadow
travels four times farther—
up & down each tree.

*

This morning
in its vase on the table,
the forsythia bloomed.

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9 Responses to First warm day

  1. Bluegrass Poet says:
    March 19, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    Hooray forsythia. Down here it was like Tuesday was all bare and dull and Wednesday was all green and yellow, like somebody remembered and hit the spring button.

    Reply
    • Dave says:
      March 19, 2009 at 1:17 pm

      Yes, it was like that here, too – and there were even a few dots of yellow outside with the first coltsfoot blooming. The first snakes were out, and the first woodfrogs at their courting puddle.

      Reply
  2. arvind says:
    March 19, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    Loved the vulture’s shadow! There are times when I was on a flight that I could glimpse the shadow of the plane on the landscape below for stretches of time. It is entrancing!

    Reply
  3. Dick says:
    March 20, 2009 at 3:07 am

    Wonderfully vivid snapshots, each one.

    Reply
    • Dave says:
      March 20, 2009 at 10:27 am

      Thanks, Dick. I’ve been taking fewer actual snapshots lately, wanting to get back to poetry a bit. I’m glad you think these are successful.

      Reply
  4. leslee says:
    March 22, 2009 at 6:27 pm

    I enjoyed these, too. What Dick said.

    Reply

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