Owl at the pond
big as my small dog
puffs out feathers
wets face
always looking around
It sees me in kitchen
watching as it goes
deeper into the water
shaking feathers
tipping
flipping
water on its back
breast deep now
looking around
repeats face wash again
and again
wings spread
then gone
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
Marveling at your bird app
Mimic sounds of a species
Make a tufted titmouse sing
Move in on a sandhill crane
Mating call is now released
Menacing drop of its head
Mark your retreat with rigor
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dVerse prompt to use the Pleiades form—
seven lines, each line has seven syllables and must start with the first letter of the one word title (true story about my husband and his birding)
November pulls the daylight shorter
crisp long shadows
a cool moon
hallways of justice écho
will there be unfaithful electors
in this month of political aspiration
migrating birds begin their journey
when there is snow on the ground
they will come to the feeder
Today the hawk came
perched on the fence
I do not want to witness
hawk swooping
to squirrel or bird
or my small dog
the hawk
ready
with talons
and hunger
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dVerse prompt on November combined with prompt on witnessing
Outside
a squirrel & a dove
feed on the ground
figs are coming on
second crop for the birds
& my vision blurred
by the screen
_________________
dVerse prompt to take a photo out the window, post photo and write a poem. Oh, how I feel my vision has been blurred lately.
SHOCKING to see the cardinal eat a gecko
thick beak designed to crack seeds & nuts
one would expect it from a blue jay
not this red bird with its sweet song
now a gecko hangs from songbird beak
lifeless & being shaken
its head consumed then tail
legs gnawed away
it looks like a small fish
yet too big for the throat
of such a now ravenous bird
_________________
I looked out the window today and saw this cardinal with a gecko. Unexpected metaphor to the current events.
a thud on the window
see-through glass brings the woods outside in
just for a second the bird believed it could fly into my living room
hit hard
spine fracturing thump
a pine siskin is convulsing outside on the deck
its beak moving as if it eats
feet traveling in a journey
wings that cannot move
There is a horny robin
banging into the reflection of itself
against the glass window he thinks he found a mate
it is cold and hard
repelling his every move
yet he keeps coming back
handsome with his orange breast
sits at the top of the apple tree
contemplating his new approach
and mumbling
that feathered bitch
Two California Condor on the ledge
young ones with faces to the cliff
it was a cold night
after warming up they will fly
if you hear the wings pound
watch them soar
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Saw these condor when walking the Navajo Bridge
to my husband
I took your name
it was smooth
birdlike
a long necked thing
white or black
never in between
this is not a swan song
it is a love song
ready to sing
against a sea of feathers
a bird taking wing
