First warm day

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.

9 Replies to “First warm day”

    1. 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.

  1. 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!

    1. By the way, congratulations on leaving the 10,000th comment at Via Negativa! (Or at least the 10,000th since April 1, 2006, when I moved from Blogger.)

    1. 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.

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