MORNING THEN, MORNING NOW

Seagulls squawked

beaks like scissor blades

in lazy circles above the hills 

crying. 

Pigeons paced the market roof

then rose in synchronized ascent

thirty-four wings taut as sails 

in early-March wind. 

Juncos arrived like travelers 

tweeting

frantic staccato trills

pecking and hopping

leaving with leather bound suitcases. 

Crows held court in a eucalyptus 

on a handrail  

atop the silver crescent of the mosque

cawing verdicts

earnest folklore

dark wisdom of the crone.

A hummingbird shot up

beat

seventy times a second

flit

needle tips

straight into the heart

bleeding on a black tar roof. 

​

American robins bop

proud chests push, quick necks peck

up and down like elevators.

Now a blue jay dive-bombs patience

“Make way for Braggadocio!”

In a cross-hatched tree-limbed sky

imperceptible but through sound

a crow caws in syncopated rhythm

with a chickadee’s fee-bee, fee-bee.
Sherbet tulips, ivy crawl,

narcissus, seed sprawl,

lawn chairs, fire pit,

rhododendron leaves

wide as tongue depressors,

back wall climbing vines, 

crocus, daisy, iris, rose bushes stir 

baby bare now sprouting

buds on every limb,

brick paths to old shed, old barn

old growth starts to dapple

the whacher (is what she was) is

supine in the ground.