the first sugar ant surveys the counter
lifting the silver brittleness of last years herbs,
fresh oregano is clamped to the ground, more
leaf than stem, more green than anything
except pincushion moss among its fellows
and lichens crowding a planetscape on a boulder.
a housefly makes wobbly lobs of test flights.
clusters of junco flocks sweep tips of treetops.
a wooly bear sashays the road, determination in
his direction and pace, while a mourning cloak rests
nearby as if in the next comic frame, and in the third frame,
blank gravel. the gr-unk gr-unk of geese heading north.
a garter snake with a lump of lunch in belly suns mid-lane.
spring peepers are massing and warming up their pitches.
a grouse at his lek booms, vibrates through my sternum
from hundreds of feet away. on leaves, gelatinous
egg masses glob here and there. a mole erodes into
a squish of mould, wet pelt looking like a stone among stones.
his tunnels in hard snow remain, in their sporty convertible phase.
the gr-unk gr-unk of geese. the gr-unk gr-unk of geese.
a cluster of coltsfoot are in vibrant bloom outshining
the sunniest spot while in shady waterfall ditches
only its pink shocks of juicy rhizomes are exposed.
a turkey triples his size, fanning and pushing out
his chest on a knoll like a politician campaigning
while nine hens spread around him, their backs to him,
pecking, but for all their insouciance, they have gathered
and they linger. and soon enough the brood of chicks.