Seen Amid the Blossoms
poems of small creatures in the spring blooms
Here is the poem I mentioned in my last post. I watched this particular rabbit early one morning as it fed under one of the many mesquite trees that are in full bloom.
Mesquite, al Fresco
I see you, young rabbit;
Though the mesquite is full of leaf and yellow flowers,
Still I spy you standing on your hind legs,
White belly outward to the sun,
Front legs lopped loosely,
And head invisible up in the leaves,
Where you have made a browse line
All along the base of the mesquite.
I’m certain it’s not just you,
But your whole family
That have trimmed the bush up so neatly.
Because each day I walk outside and see
Pink-veined ears listening from the gravel,
Large eyes watching me
While tongue casually cleans a dirty foot,
The occasional burst of a white rear
Slipping into the brush streetside.
Well, neighbors, enjoy your breakfast
Al fresco of mesquite!
The palo verde trees are flowering magnificently this year. My sister and I watched a pair of vermilion flycatchers feeding and flirting under the brilliant yellow canopy of palo verde blossoms.
Bright yellow bower~
vermilion flycatchers find
honeymoon lodgings.
And there is an assortment of butterflies to be seen. I found one minuscule bluet crawling carefully along the flagstones while its wings acted like sails in the wind.
Creep across small stones
while breeze tips the tapestry
of your wings, bluet.
As summer enters here in the desert, snow seems a long way off; but there are plenty of poems about it in my poetry collection The Hillside Diary!