Stream Water Whispers

Walk of February 2, 2016

Bright the morning sun;

Warm, this winter temperature;

Active, the fat birds.

Amid the tall trees

Bundled forms disappearing--

(Kids at play again.)

Sun hits the dry leaves;

Doesn't bring them back to life.

Small birds keep feeding.

With his sharp eye cocked

Chickadee sits on the rail

Waiting his turn.

Two cats in the sun,

One is watching the other,

Watching  something else.

Stream water whispers

As it flows over shadows

Of tree limbs above.

Outside empty house

Empty chair basks in sunlight

Permeating it.

Frozen in the ice

Dead brown leaf is immobile.

Wind cannot touch it.

Walk of February 4, 2016

He is still trying--

Crazy persistent squirrel.

(No help from feeder).

Gray winter morning;

Sunlight has gone from the sky

Leaving memories.

Truncated tree limbs;

Fur remains of a dead deer;

Gentle cold breeze blows.

Yesterday's rainfall,

Today's swollen, racing stream,

New born glistening ponds.

Painted on dead trees,

Old pale lichen and new moss--

Colonies of life.

Next to blasted stump

Dead mother log gives birth

To green ferns and moss.

Friendly old stone walls

Keep nothing out, nothing in--

Spaces at both ends.

Four tall trees growing

From the same spot in the ground;

(Do they share a seed?)