Am I really a squirrel, as my wife suggests?
Sometimes I wonder.
~*~
For more on my poetry collection and others, click here.
Tag: Home
ONE BRUSH STROKE OR ROLLER AT A TIME
One of the places I’ll admit there’s progress is in the realm of house paint. The mere fact you can go in and have a custom color on the spot that will match one you had mixed earlier is a huge advance. No more guessing. And that’s even before we get to latex, which cleans up with water, rather than oil-based or lead-infused paints.
No more color chips that were way off what showed up on the walls. Oh, how I remember my mother’s lamenting on that one, especially when they’d hired a family friend who was part of a professional painting crew. She hated the color, especially after they tried to correct it.
Now, if the blue tape only worked so well.
TOP NOTE
Strolling Dover: for more, click here.
OCTAGON HOUSE
Eight sides rather than four, to approach circular perfection.
Strolling Dover: for more, click here.
WILDLIFE, CLOSE TO HOME
more squirrels than girls – and there are a lot of girls in this neighborhood
two horny squirrels on a tree
neighbors report a large groundhog … where are those dogs?
possum … how funny they look, running
their back arches, and both ends drop
nearly to the ground
how laborious!
a possum in the bottom of one of our plastic barrels
furrier than I expected
turn the cylinder on its side, still takes a while
for the critter to move off … injured? stunned? no idea
a young porcupine crossing Hill Street four doors down …
a neighbor watching from the stoop …
next night, a dead adult porcupine in the street
on our apron by the back door
a small snake, whip motion,
ever so slowly
Rachel awakens me
for a scurrying, gnawing noise
inside the wall, beside our heads
in the morning, I realize we haven’t heard
the house sparrows nesting in the eaves overhead, either
none of our plans come off as planned
but we keep readjusting
poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
~*~
For more of my home and garden poetry, click here.
CRITTERS
Reprise
The amount of wildlife in our yard continually impresses me,
especially compared to Oakdale Avenue or Woodbine.
The abundance of squirrels, of course, and possible rats
but also skunks, opossums, the groundhog can be added in
plus snakes and insects.
We must be doing something right, or just be in the right location.
A first: amid a throng of blue jays chasing a crow, a mockingbird:
was its nest raided or threatened?
~*~
For more on my home and garden poetry, click here.
GOLDEN RAGE
So much yellow, this time of summer! Sunflowers, finches, goldenrod, corn drenched in butter. Banks of black-eyed susans, too.
~*~
For my collected garden poems and more, click here.
IN THE ROUND
Or maybe it’s just a nest?
Strolling Dover: for more, click here.
AWNINGS
Summer comfort.
Strolling Dover: for more, click here.
ANYONE LIKE BEING SPIED ON?
The other afternoon we were sitting with friends in our Smoking Garden when a fast-moving object caught my eye. Shaped like a small airplane, it dashed across a span of sky visible between the limbs of a maple overhead and then halted. What we heard sounded like a large mosquito and was about just as welcome.
We presume it carried a camera and was spying on the neighborhood. When we edged outward for a closer look at the offending intruder, it scooted away, only to return several times later. Maybe it didn’t like being observed. For that matter, neither did we.
“If we had a gun, could we shoot it down?”
Well, how far does our airspace extend? And what rights do we have versus theirs? Whoever they are. Potential burglars looking for easy prey? Perverts? Even police?
The fact is, the experience is disconcerting, even before we get to the notorious role of drones in Afghanistan and other military – and not so military – zones.
Who’s responsible for this one? What’s it doing there, above us? And why?
Some of us cherish privacy as an essential American right embedded in the First Amendment. And then there’s that matter of my home is my castle, arising in English Common Law.
Besides, a mechanical drone has none of the freedom birds enjoy. The lower reaches of the sky should belong to natural aviators, not an artificial intruder.
Anyone else care to “chirp” in?
