In memory of Dale Hoyt *
Come, my friend, just one last time
and walk me down a Garden path
reliving a ramble in early June
when once again a hummingbird house
is wound in silk and saliva. Describe
how it’s layered with lichens and leaves
then show where it hides
high in a white oak
cloaked in a canvas of green.
Come weave a tale of hungry toads
hunting the musty leaf-littered dampness
under the air-dance of damselflies.
Then mimic the trill of a Leopard frog
and the plucked glunk of its Green cousin
calling from a froggy shore.
Now talk me through the gruesome fate
of zombie bugs riddled with fungus
clinging to leaf-tip graves.
Speak of the hidden lives in soil –
of thousand-gendered mycelia
and subterranean slime-mold sex.
Then show me the home of chanterelles
where gold funnels grow
on a green moss floor.
Bring on the air of an early summer
bounding through a boyhood day
recalling the ways of wonder
and watch me shed my decades
like the sloughed skin of an aging snake
baking in the noonday sun.
Come the twist of eternity
let us idle outside the gates of heaven
to drift in the peace of a warm summer breeze.
* Over many years, Dale led the Nature Ramblers at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. He kept a detailed record on his award-winning Nature Rambling blog site. My poem describes a ramble on June 11, 2015. Here is a link to Dale's blog post for that week:
https://naturerambling.blogspot.com/2015/06/ramble-report-june-11-2015.html
Dale Hoyt teaching at a ramble 
Ruby throated hummingbird on nest
Image by Don Hunter
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