young Guernsey finally
treads to the wire for my chat
bellows when I leave
on these shoulder cracks
spread lichens of highway salt
till spring’s first rainfall
carved owl on a stump
has me fooled like other pests—
I thought it a gnome
sunlight caught their pinions
as they flew through the saplings—
four winter whitetails
ditch water flowing
to comb frowsy limp tresses
till ice holds her hand
under churning falls
creek foam floats beneath brambles
still icicle sheathed
birch branches splay bronzed
in winter’s sun till springfire
melts their copper blood
tips of berry canes
bent over fast rivulets
were iced from their kiss
mud, fir, and creek flow
declare themselves—my nose dead
all winter revives
glinting tinsel trails
lead to wooded side lots where
last year’s trees are dumped
on a farmer’s ridge
three geese low, a peregrine calls
to a child’s play scream
this low cutting sun
peels all these shagbark branches
as it bronzes them
catkin shadows rake
a reflecting rill that flows
over ice it was
loud buckling ice sheets--
strides of winter afternoon
seeking burbling streams
this fallen willow
wind-riven storm-topped ice-snared
stump like a snapped bone
raising a knarred limb
this elmy bole shields behind
a frightening gall
a break of dark firs
days after snowfall trace white
on hugged boughs within
juniper stumps thrust
fasces through retreating snows
soon retake this field
skies that stain this pond
and tint azure roadside snows
fill each small paw print
blend of bank and brook--
icy mantillas ravel
'neath late winter sky
galleries of cows
lounge, enjoying antic geese
on a thawing pond
just spines of snow lie
beside the county roads now--
whisper as I pass
from severely cropped
forsythia a wreny
flounce doffs all at once
rural symmetry—
listing gatepost, beveled field
and a fractal herd
an old Christmas wreath
tossed for compost, now plated
five globes moss-glace
Constable moment:
stacked clouds, slate pond, sculpted trees—
yet the Angus fidge
on this newly-hewn
stump in red marker a note
bleeds after night’s rain
five months of road strew
from all the county truckers
can’t bury coltsfoot
these unseen peepers
in their tufted water sing
louder than traffic
only skunk cabbage
glows green in the greybrown glen
of shale, toppled trees
communion of sorts:
on lawns beside old stone church
fawns return my stare
deer swaths through high weeds
lead intriguingly toward
backyard trampolines
shifting chevron geese
silent glide to this pondside
congressional din
strewn rusted worms lie
cat-pawed from the tarmac
like spent bent ring shanks
so many limbs lopped
street side from ochered pin oaks
they list to starboard
newly sprayed fog line
stenciled where a splayed tree toad
missed his element
small door closing sound
caused by vaudeville squirrels leaping
onto that dead branch
a gradual dale
holds iceblue sky swirls in which
float greygreen slush clouds
squirrels racing round
the shagbark drum the tabla
celebrating spring
eight trestles they stood
atop the rise—splayed and spare
then bounded woodward
huge windbreaks of fir—
bowers of the fallen queen—
shook o’er her snow veils
a clutch of oak leaf
relics clicking before me—
then I feel the breeze
salvation in March
comes when maple twigs again
look arterial
cattails wintered through
like bandages unwinding
for blackbird’s red wound
turtle scuttled down
strawed bank under algae
to be its shadow
bowls of shredded wheat
pooled round now by melting snow—
fall’s crosshatch dry grass
wait in the tree wings
squirrels hightail it offstage
picket fence dancing
until I give way
this winter wren will not budge
on a roadside bough
his random comments
a morning dove sways and drops
above my passage
skims across hill slopes
but that kestrel that kestrel
Peripatetics: Springing
wind-roiled farmer's pond
color of new-poured cement
reflects just itself
above a nut-hatch
grooving on a dried-out stalk
squirrel plucked along
tried to stare me down
forty feet or so this doe,
this roadside diner
old boxer, three cows,
pond-rim of geese stare at me:
Did you bring the thaw?
I pass sentry crow—
five caws to a nearby tree—
four back: Copy that
climbing uphill think,
How’s manure reek through this snow?
snowmobiles again!
one by one six deer
peel from their pine bough lunches—
turn till six again
otherwise quiet:
only woodpeckers ratchet
wind-up woods in snow
this road-kill squirrel
signifies with his last act—
to cling to this earth
one buck stands staring—
designated worrier—
others nibble twigs
dozen geese or so
wobble through pond mud until
three loft then the rest
this river otter—
just tucking in—ambled back
to his culvert home
hill-rim foot soldiers
these marshalling tapered yews
with each glance advance
high up leafless oaks
crabfests of squirrels ratchet
about twittering neighbors
rose-breasted nuthatches
scrape by metallic crab trees—
a bronze leaf flutters
culvert stream divides
last week’s frozen paten from
this night’s potential
running rivulets
reclaim their reed-woven banks
from heavy melting snows
yeah, yeah, yeah, there’s geese
Peripatetics: Coiling
‘neath his table rock
this chipmunk glowers chuffing
for his chaffy snacks
sunning frogs plop in
ruffling the algae ruffles
momentarily
folded over clouds
on a mottled marble slate
left all day to rise
sere clenched oak leaves
on these September pavements
skitter furtively
floors of algae bloom
through which thrust fisted ditch grass
fanned by leaf shadows
creek’s pallete swirls sky
into ochre underbrush
for moss patinas
Birch: indigo wash
scumble wrinkles on bone shafts
stipple leafy mist
geese on this pond bank
bask blindly in morning deep
in downy bolsters
scarlet stoles enwrap
these autumn torsos with such
seductive poison
only obstructions
spin frothing punctuations
in this gladed creek
rushing flow beneath
and prodding breezes behind
raise up our spirits
on a new-mown lawn
a single crow slow dances—
oh, to hear that air
this morning’s light shows
lines a spider nightcrew used
to lash this fir row
yellow seven flag
flaps over a felt-napped green
reclaimed from woodland
his legs unfolded
just like Uncle’s boxwood rule
stalks this white egret
one chipmunk pate
serving four turkey buzzards—
just an amuse bouche
days after downpours—
hear the damp morning ring with
swollen roiling brooks
twig not a garter
leaf not toad, nor pebble snail—
wind in the grass, though
reed section muted
but pizzicato brambles
blared yelloworangegold
it was worth the wait
for knapweed and crap asters
to line the roadside
sky gathering clouds
and detritus of dry days
whirls into ditches
claws draped on stump edge
stares me down: this squirrel hears
acorns raining ‘round
feedcorn-combed hilltop’s
tonsured at this clover brow—
till the next clipping
lone gander glides prowed
afore this steamship waking
in sun-early pond
in mushroom season
skulls and knees and fingers wan
spore in cloistered shade
sun-warmed sign respires—
NO DUMPING COMM. DPW—
under sumac drip
running water rush
is nothing more than hundreds
of wing shrugging crows
on a farmer’s road
these shotgun shells underfoot
discourage my steps
thick clump birches thrust
from mottled sheaves to whip
drooping drapes of grey
rill sings in straw grass
fetchingly an Auld Lang Syne
to spring’s excesses
littered acorn cups
many still attached to twigs--
squirrrels’ debauchery
it’s Sun Ra out there
as geese riff widening gyres
in a thawing pond
in topmost twigging
lookout crows mark my approach
by sudden silence
on a farmer’s ridge
three geese low, a peregrine calls
to a child’s play scream
three pyres of dry leaves
then an Irish setter flamed
in sun’s last low rays
leaves down at pondside
shows no trace of my egret
just as he glides down
Bessie and Flossie
tip-hoof down a slope careful
of indifferent geese
how quickly the cows—
with moues at lowing hikers—
return to the rick
clotted maple leaves
cannot staunch autumn bleeding
on abatoir streets
solitary goose
without a V to pivot
cries, Bereft! Bereft!
autumn’s poison oak
has set out surveyors flags
in crazy patterns
sybaritic cows
hunker on hollows and muse
fate-laden geese shows
each yellowed bracken
among still green undergrowth:
recumbent ribcage
garter snake is draped
athwart a small flat rock like
lace on a loafer
geese toward a spillway
drift, their dun progress marked by
monarch, cardinal
a river turtle
fixed on a log like fungus
heeds no croaking bull
chopped to length and left,
this chunk wood memorial
bronzed with patina
road sides are rustling,
unseen life snaps, quakes and stirs
at each passer-by
claques of standing corn
acclaim my cameo turn
this October morn