Tag: birds

One of Many Things

I think what I adore about you most
is your compassion for creatures in need:
the softshell turtle caught in dirt you freed;
protecting the mother hens on the coast
of the pond from a rowdy drake engrossed
in his hormones; and when you took the lead
trapping and releasing to his green weeds
the little lizard found on our bedpost.

Spiders, moths, and even juvenile wasps,
you do what you can to bring them from harm.
Even when exhausted you don't exhaust
your kindness for helpless things. That's the charm
which draws us to your arms, especially
the one who needs you more than any: me.

Cutting Grass

I never minded 
Cutting grass (it's just a chore)
Until his outrage;
The next time I took notice,
Frantic grasshoppers cornered,

Butterflies driven
From screaming engines of blades,
Surviving despite
The razing of their green homes.
Before week's end they've grown back.

And from the neighbors'
The crimson cardinal and
His tawny feathered 
Mate return to our trees with
The red-headed woodpecker.

New Neighbors

While driving to Walgreens for you,
A pair of sandhill cranes
Stroll along the sidewalk,
Their foreheads blazing cherries.

They carry their tender frames,
So tall and russet brown,
Lightly as soft breezes
Going nowhere briskly.

We've seen a good few
Lately, are they here
Advising safety; it is 
Hurricane season soon.

Now they're rounding our
Corner as I return.
I hurry you outside
To meet our new neighbors.

I snap some blurry pictures
Of their graceful exit;
The leaves into the curtain
And sidewalks they make their runway.

Franklin

It finally happened, and I
Have felt the most singular joy:
Franklin, the largest of our ducks,
And I think the father of most of them,
Ate blueberries out of my hand!

Our younger ducks are still skittish,
So I simply toss them berries;
But Franklin's courageous and comfortable,
He doesn't fear the touch of this ape.
And if ever I feared the bill of a duck,
Truth reveals that completely baseless.
Franklin is sweet beyond compare:
It feels like rounded tongs when he nibbles,
Gently tickling my palms for fruit.

And not just that, though that's sublime,
He even let me pet his breast!
He held himself with the dignity
Of a wild animal, yet serenely,
Familiarly he accepted my touch.
With the backs of my first two fingers 
I softly stroked his dappled breast.

Franklin gives his mouth a lick
And holds his head up while I pet him.
I look into his golden eyes,
At his leathery, red face,
The equal streaks of black and white
Which course atop his fluffy head
And down his neck; he's so plush!

I thank him for allowing me
To feel the soft touch of his down.
He chuffs as if to thank me in turn
For the blueberries. He is content.
What an incredible creature I'm blessed
To have as a neighbor purely by chance,
This muscovy duck Franklin!

Percy’s Stretch

Should you have the joy of being
Around ducks in the morning or evening,
You've surely seen the way they stretch—
One leg extending backward
As the matching wing fans out.

I must have spent several scores
Of sunsets and twilights and even a dozen
Daybreaks squatting beside these birds,
But only once have I seen a stretch 
The way that Percy pulled it off.

He balanced on a single leg
And started splaying feathers out;
As I sat behind him on his left,
He seemed to point each feather at me.
Perfectly propped like a tiny scarecrow,
I didn't notice it at first.

Beginning to kick a leg out,
As if by legerdemain, from his right
The little extremity extended!
He paused: the ambiguous spinning dancer;
And stretched his toes like a black canvas.

He flared his midnight wing once more,
Kicked his foot its entire length;
Then he set it back on the clay 
And gave a little shake, ruffling
His iridescent feathers up,
Looking like a brass pinecone 
With subtle green and purple patina.

It seems so rare to me; indeed
I've never seen it before or since.
Percy then settled back down
To gaze at the sinusoidal pond.
Franklin was laid beside him, and Norm
And, further off in a shadow, George
Slumbered on the shore nearby.

I was squatting down on my haunches,
And my knees were beginning to ache.
We decided to let them sleep.
I stood up and stretched my own legs but
Not nearly as spectacularly
As Percy, the little black duck
With a dickie of white breast feathers.