new to the neighborhood
they peek out and test our scent
Goldie the ground squirrel
popping up from the rocks at the edge of the deck
the pair of pine grosbeaks
decorating the aspen before leaf-out
and the mountain chickadees
unabashedly evaluating a nest site
while I gawk five feet away
in mid-morning
violet-green swallows careen about the eaves
regardless of where we are
and any time we’re in the woods
the gray jays find us first
I try to strike up a conversation
introduce myself
but their eyes are on our palms
wondering whether we’re handout types
exactly 28 minutes after
hanging up the hummingbird feeder
I hear him pause midflight
I rush to the window
just in time to see him take a sip
seemingly not to his satisfaction
then he buzzes up a story
looks me in the face
as if to say
puh-lease!
we’ve seen deer tracks in the dirt
and woodrat scat in the shed
(beside the ripped-open recycling)
and this evening
a ball of sunset glow came trotting
down the hill to the east
lighting up the family room windows
jovial, unconcerned
we leapt up
and as if to put us in our place
the red fox squatted
marked her territory
and nonchalantly kept going down the road
we’re summer people, after all
unlikely to make friends
(despite our best efforts)
glad to settle for some
curious new acquaintances
Carol says:
That’s so lovely, Erin!
AEOC says:
Can’t wait for you to meet some of them!
Jean says:
Love your poem, if it meets your approval would love to include the link in my soon-to-be “Making a List…Checking it Twice
AEOC says:
Sure, Jean! Thanks for reading. With my BoCo Wild Writers students and 2nd graders from High Peaks Elementary in Boulder, Colorado this spring we wrote list poems for Poem in Your Pocket Day. Here’s a link to the formula I created that we used: https://bit.ly/2WLaHrF
and here’s a sample poem that resulted – this is one the second graders wrote together to try it out:
in my pocket
I carry
a frozen flower
a growling fox
a shiny rainbow
the smell of my mom baking chocolate chip cookies
that time I won the Jogathon prize
someone saying, “No more broccoli until you eat your ice cream!”
the time when you broke your leg when you accidentally landed on a hard surface
on your knee
a fluffy pig
the quiet sound of hugging a pillow
a thankful sticky note
just in case you might need
one of those wonders
This reminds me of the biopoems you talk about in your wonderful post I Like My Salsa Picante: https://literarilymyway.com/i-like-my-salsa-picante/