Dove in hand, my songbird You sing so sweetly to me Jealous birdy, oh so needy, You steal my donut freely With careful tenderness As your heart pounds Fearless as you escape The cage designed for Your protection You pluck my garnet heartstrings And soar…

Chortling birds, amused by my sleepy morns chatter and clatter past my window to the trees where roosts the hens and chicks of buzzards, turkeys, eagles and hawks. Turkeys are the funniest things with Toms that strut and puff like kings, Tail feathers spread and…

How do I describe you Innocently blue Like song and sadness you do swoon Jaded in time They call you black when you’re blue-green Iridescent cerulean-teal sheen A corvid by any other name You and other birds are not the same You and your brethren…

I march bravely into the unknown. The silent room slowly awakens. Gentle go the lights. The teacher’s words draw my eyes. A quick reverie amidst the sounds of squeaking sneakers and slamming lockers. tapping the window sharply robin interrupts wisps of fluffy clouds One-by-one the…

I wrote about walking during the day, as it now noon here. Outside It’s an oven outside The air mostly just hot, still, what you might expect at noon near the summer solstice on a desert island. Onions are frying in ghee for someone’s lunch,…

Real They all said they were real. I had – and have – no idea what that means. Is it hunger? Thirst? Feeling the wind catching in your throat? How do you know real when (if?) you find it? What do you do to attain…

Les oiseaux étrangers    They say and who are they the wise who know so much about us? that where you live at eight years is always home. Maybe that is true for more than me: my home moored to an unfixed object floating through…

(for hour 3—image prompt)   Bird Watching   She’s gone off the trails In her bright new dress Amid reeds and cattails In search of heron’s nest   Traversing crag and rock Merely watching us wave Frustrated shock Watching her scare birds away

Spring Kigo, Haiki Set Ann WJ White Nesting birds arrive. Singing bright lullabies near, Filling the green trees. Old frogs leap and call, Turning spring dances in air, Waiting for lovers. Spring’s optimism Decorates blooming plants and Leaf kaleidoscopes Storms lash out above, Elaborate referees…

Lost and Redemption of a Life Ann WJ White Awakening the morning, waiting for it to rise, I follow a small tortiseshelled cat to her breakfast, carefully apportioned puree of chicken served on a glass dish, glistening. She is the reason for rising, for dancing,…