How Bountiful!

—Poems and Photos by Taylor Graham, Placerville, CA

SHY

At our edge of lawn
a doe—sonar-ears tuned to
danger, eyes deer-wide—
staring at me through window-
glass just aiming my lens—gone.

TOO QUICK TO CATCH

This April morning,
black phoebe alights on a
tip of marshy rush
as wild goose leads her goslings—
glimpsed, then gone in green-springing.

LOVE SONG?

In a neighbor’s field
two wild geese cackling up a
storm. It’s nesting time.
Spring. They’ve got each other. What
is all the ruckus about?

PLAIN AS EARTH

Throw open the shutter and sit, mug
in hand, gazing at the next-door garden,
scarecrow standing between vegetable
rows. Think of the aunt who cooked
plain, hardly used sauces; never salty
enough. Squash just tasted like squash.
Your dad called her parsimonious.
Her speech known for brevity, phrases
partial as if she couldn’t find adjectives
in a language she wasn’t born to,
but she gets her point across.
Everything about her plain as earth.
How bountiful her garden.

AFTER APRIL SHOWERS

The meadow’s twined with lavish green
and not a dry spot in between—
the liveliest I’ve ever seen

and dotted here and there with gold.
That’s monkeyflower, so I’m told,
and fiddle-neck, its topknot rolled
so cunningly like velveteen

to burst in fiddle-blooming song
so all the fledglings sing along.
And how could anything be wrong
while spring’s conducting the whole scene?

CUTTING HER HAIR

There’s so much of it, for an old lady
but of course she’s forever young.
She likes to wear her hair long and free
so the wind can tousle it like a soft
rooted tide. As I cut, the tresses
fall in waves, curls, braids and tangles
twined with flowers. Buttercups
and purple vetch. I leave the poppies
in peace, cropping her tresses close
but soon they’ll grow back again
as sure as spring. Such
lush green hair has Mother Earth.

 Latches, who just celebrated his one-year birthday,

with his prey.

Today’s Little"Nip"ofcarvedduck:
 
THE CAT’S CARVED DUCK
—Taylor Graham

Cat’s caught a duck. Asian duck, one of a pair,
a gift from someone’s business trip somewhere.
Duck is carved from wood but cat doesn’t care.
This forbidden room is a stealth-cat’s lair.
He snuck in unapprehended, so it’s only fair
the duck is his, his rightful feline share.
One paw on its wooden back to keep it there,
he guards the wide-eyed duck as if aware
at any moment it might fly away somewhere.
It’s not yours anymore, so please don’t stare.

____________________

Thank you, Taylor Graham, for bringing all the sights and sounds of spring to us on this May morning! This is a busy day in our area for poetry events—so busy, in fact, that I’m going to be lazy and say, scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute. Toady is, however, the Big Day of Giving in Sacramento, so do check that out.

If you missed the “Tough Enough” reading/release in Sacramento last Sunday, catch some of it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkpxR20zyCw&fbclid=IwAR0oVU64H_bpRtD69oCOtVZKLF-3wQR8_VM91TbP97l0Rty1GY94gNxWIuY/. The poetry anthology, Tough Old Broads, from Cold River Press, can be obtained at www.coldriverpress.com/.

—Medusa, celebrating Poetry!

 Brood of Canada Geese

Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.