Tag Archives: Redbud

BURNING BUSH

 

 

Prolonged moment before the all-day rain
quit, evening light pressed into the gray
reflects the mist within like a lantern glowing

separate from the sinking sun, blinding colors
rage around me, superfluous extremes burning
wildly with possibilities that beg me to yield,

to gratefully acquiesce and unfence my mind.
Rooted in a woodstove ash dump, heavy
with seed pods after twenty years—Redbud

in flames, tongues of fire hanging brightly
to taste the damp air fresh with a thousand
new beginnings we’ve yet to speak of.

 

PERHAPS

 

 

The talons of a Golden Eagle
squeeze a squirrel beneath
the blades of pasture green

not far from the screen door
I close quietly behind me. A second
lands beside the first to begin

the meal. Several shades of bronze
shimmer in mid-day flight
as the first leaves the second

to eat alone—long flap of wings,
sure and purposeful. Sweet partnerships
grow wild, yet sometimes seem more

civilized than what we see among men.
Perhaps the Bird and Animal people
placed devotion, the selfless heart

into the tribe they created—or perhaps
we learned what we now claim
exceptional from birds and animals.

 

GIFT, OCTOBER 2011

 

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Bumper crop of acorns,
warm monsoon rains.
The redbud bloomed

confused, drawing butterflies
for weeks—the season’s
last hatch of Monarchs

swarming crimson, orange
and black-trimmed fairies
to the front door.

All a sign of something
unusual, uniquely beautiful—
that superfluous imbalance

charged to an unknown
future—a fleeting gift
to remember the gods

before leaving us
four years dry and begging
for something normal.

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: “Weightless” Monarchs

 

Weather Journal 2011-12

Rainfall History

 

SIGN 2012?

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Rare October Redbud bloom
summoned Monarchs,
began a two-year drought.

 

 

WPC(1) — “Gone, But Not Forgotten”