Favorites - Animals

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I looked up at the sky above

And saw a soft white mourning dove

Drifting far above the ground

Making not a single sound

It fluttered not its lovely wing

Nor turned its head, as if to sing,

But crossed the sky in silent flight

Such a peaceful morning sight

Above my door, a luna moth

Cut from pale green velvet cloth

Wings with iridescent eyes

Tuxedo tails of handsome size

He posed immobile, in a daze

And stayed, unmoving, two full days

But when I tried to touch him there

He stirred and rose up in the air

Up and down, I watched him fly

A roller coaster in the sky

Winged away, and crossed my lawn

Before I knew it, he was gone!

"Great spangled fritillary" - bold, pretentious name

Evoking pomp and circumstance, nobility and fame

Giant orange plumage, royal robe trimmed out with fur

All New England's butterflies bow their wings to her

Butterflies, on rounded rocks, gathered by the stream

A pride of tiger swallowtails, as if from some odd dream

Black and yellow wings atop some pinkish, blue-ish stone

Kaleidoscope - none other, than creation's very own

Soon, their wings will lift and soar upon an evening breeze

Moiré patterns, scattering, wherever they might please

The silent rocks will stay there, unmoving until when

A summer storm comes crashing, joyous, down the rocky glen

Tiny nest, on the ground

Architect, nowhere found

Freshly fallen through the air

Untethered from a branch somewhere

A windy gust knocked it loose

From a lofty treetop roost

This lovely little woodland home

Lost in space, all alone

We say "home away from home,"

Seeing someone, as they roam,

Finding refuge, far away

In a place, where they stay

This nest, in contrast, rather sad

A home without its launching pad

From which young birds once learned to fly

Blind faith, leaping, into sky

But after holding in my hand

This tiny bird-made mossy land

Needles, lichens, leaves, and more...

Returned it to the forest floor

A bird perspective tugged at me

And in that moment, I could see

This home away from home had found

A resting place, on the ground!

Are we so clever, building homes

Commemorating life with poems

Thinking we have mastered time

Within our world of stilted rhyme?

Birds don't stop to think of these

Toiling high up in the trees

Every year, they make anew

A home within a home, with view

Real estate, away up high

Afterward, not asking why

Once fledgelings leave the home, it falls

   ... they'll build next year, when nature calls

One day when I was on a walk

I saw him basking on a rock

No larger than my left big toe

In spite of sixty legs or so

Better dressed than most of his type

He wore a suit with stylish stripe

A creature with a stately gait

When he walked, he'd undulate

Wonderfully designed, indeed

That lazy, leggy millipede