The Birds
The birds
With their dinosaur beaks
That cry with the wind
And their dinosaur feet
That settle in and scratch at the dirt:
The birds
That scarcely even look at me –
No, they just feel my presence
And away they fly
With their wings like the arms of dinosaurs
But better, improved,
Capable of balance and flight.
Magical.

I walk stumblingly and loud
The way that us man-apes walk
And the birds rustle in the brush –
Then ascend
At just the vibration of my steps,
The crunch of leaves and sticks beneath my bulk,
My human ungainliness.
I continue toward the water
Wishing I could be elusive and graceful,
Pinpoint accurate,
Hollow-boned:
As lovely as a cardinal descending,
As tuneful as a lark calling;
As precise as a hawk circling above the earth
Or coming in for a kill.

Diamondback
“Death is not your friend
Or your adversary.
Death is your inevitable.
Death just is.”

I wrote that in my head as I walked along.

I was walking on the path
With the brush on either side of me
When an Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake sat coiled in my path.

I stood still at a distance,
Staring down and over at her;
Waiting for her to notice me so she would slide away into the brush

But she just ignored me for a while.
Either that or she didn’t notice me.
Finally I decided to try to walk around her because I had somewhere to be.

She didn’t react when I walked past her,
Getting almost in her striking range.
I found that odd and when I got safely past her I turned around.

When I did, I saw her in a defensive position, head up
Mouth open wide and
Staring at me with her eyes as black and passionless as a shark’s.

I walked on, turning around again to make sure she wasn’t following me.
When I got home I half-expected her to be on my doorstep waiting for me
On my welcome mat – all curled up, rattling, mouth wide open
But she wasn’t.

Not today.

When I Die
When I die
Bury me
Beneath the shade
Of the tree
Whose roots were watered
With the tears
And fed with the light
Of our unfolding
Arrival
Surrender to the other
Passion
Demolition
Rebirth
And quiet ending

It is the only place
I ever felt anything
And I will lie in peace
Feeling the wind rustle the leaves
And the snow
Bending the branches
Above my quietude

Let me rest there
Pretending that what once was
Will always be