Life Cycle of the Botfly

It was a thing that made me queasy

puffed up fat larva of something

found near a dead chipmunk

I let it go and watched it undulate

over the sidewalk on a hot day

hoping the sun would kill it

didn’t know it would bury itself in soil

to become a botfly that lay small larvae

picked up by unsuspecting mammals

then worm through the fur to an opening

and now inside it bores its way to the skin

feeds off the host in a disturbing life cycle

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dVerse nature poem today. I am still disturbed by seeing the botfly larva. I have tried to be open minded about its ways but have trouble with the “bores its way to the skin” part.

New Garden

Let the soil be rich with nutrients

All the worms making it home

Birds searching for bugs and seed

Over the fresh turned ground

Ready for a new planting

how long I workeD

then abracadabrA

it was time to plaY

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dVerse prompt to try acrostic poetry— I ended up with LABOR DAY

Flower

Bloom in sunshine delirious

from deep the ground mysterious

puts on a show for all of us

don’t make a fuss don’t make a fuss

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Before too long it will wither

turn dry and brown when we shiver

time to give thanks to the giver

oh come hither oh come hither

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dVerse prompt to write a monotetra— eight syllables each rhyming line except for the fourth line which is a four count repeat. Of course I had to write about the garden.

Change

Now it is only a trickle of a stream

where boulder rocks and pebbles accumulate

no hint of water on their smoothness

a dry bed until the hard rains come

gathering a force that pushes land

creates a new course through the city streets

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dVerse prompt on writing a quadrille using the word stream. Also recalling the flooding at Zion National Park and the water flowing through the streets.

Condor

Standing on Navajo Bridge

I see two condors

on the cliff face they look small

great wings tucked and resting

Colorado River moves below

takes rafters through the Grand Canyon

hoping to see a condor

maybe a peregrine falcon

Our guide tells of the time

high on the rock ledge

temperatures so hot

fledglings died in their nest

Still I want to see a condor take flight

I want to watch it soar

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Nesting condors have been observed at Zion National Park and I am hoping that global warming doesn’t push them out of their nests too early. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9814501/amp/Two-critically-endangered-California-condors-spotted-near-Zion-National-Park.html

Woodland Garden

• 

• 

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More foliage than flower

patches of sunlight

yet mostly shade

canopied by cedars and firs

rhodies iris fern

sun filled veggie garden

coaxing the plants

to become

dinner

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dVerse prompt on garden—

Solstice in the Garden

I am drawn to the garden, to rake, shovel and hoe until dusk, on the longest daylight of the year. There is so much to do. The blue wheelbarrow is filled with mulch and rolls back and forth delivering its load. Weeds are pulled and branches pruned. The garden blooms in the solstice sun and I must strive to get a year’s work done until another one.

weeds come and go

get the seeds before they grow

temporary fix

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dVerse prompt for solstice haibun

Walking My Dog

Walking my dog into the labyrinth

he has no sense of following the path

(marked with stone and showing the way)

he prefers random ins and outs

sniffs along breaking the barriers

(set by man to keep us in line)

smudge on his nose

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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille and use the word smudge. I actually know a dog named Smudge but this is not about him. This is about my dog who always has his nose in just about everything.

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Purple Splendor

• 

Rhododendron

blooming

purple in its splendor

risk taken

after a flower

the fade

no longer the showcase

of the garden

fertilize

mulch the ground

prepare it for

another bloom

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dVerse prompt on risk and remodel— garden is beautiful and then it isn’t

Garden Wounds

When plants fight back

leave a wound on finger

twig in the eye

scrap of the blackberry vine

stain of the grass

bitter taste

of the forgotten lettuce

renegade limbs

blocking my path

thought that they could

keep me away

wound up as compost

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dVerse prompt to use the homograph wound in a quadrille