Spring's End

Athens, Georgia
late May, 2018

As surely as earth tilts toward the sun 

the long spring slumps into summer.

Today the pastel sunrise 

tints the cirrus with hints of pink.

Soon the sky will glow again

with the radiance of late May.

Now the catalpa is covered in white. 

Now the southern magnolia blooms.  

The scented air softens skin

and works its way into bones.

Wooden door frames begin to swell 

and windows stick in their tracks.

The canopy crawls with aphids 

trailing their sweet organic sheen.

As a hickory drips the sticky dew 

onto the frame of my Ford, 

I sense that spring has run its course.

Time to retreat to the edges of night –

The summer lull has just begun;

a hundred days of heat ahead.

Southern Catalpa

The Business of High Spring

Athens, Georgia
May 3, 2018

The soulful notes of a wood thrush cease 

when coded warnings cut the air.

A hawk swoops through the understory

culling anoles and unwary mice.

Chipmunks skitter for hidden dens. 

A buzzard wheels overhead.

Shadows and silence … 

The bustle resumes. 

Beauty is a privileged vision 

in a world hard about business –

Where nervous squirrels vie for the rights 

to your bird feeder 

and goldfinches fight for the tattered sack 

of thistle seed.

Where biting flies rise from brush 

and chiggers infest the meadows. 

They covet your blood 

for you, too, are a creature of spring. 

You are the doe and deer tick, 

the moth and the evening swallow.

You are the red-shouldered hawk 

and the unfortunate field mouse too slow to his hole.

You are the quickest chipmunk, 

the top finch on a thistle bag,

the orphaned fawn, the crippled wren,

bones and feathers pecking the dirt.

You’re the squirrel chased back to her perch 

chattering oaths and scratching fleas. 

You are the starboard hind flank flea 

and the chigger that missed her mark.

Spring is open air improv ballet. 
Its beauty is hard business.