What I saw today . . .

Mr. Rabbit scurrying out from his hiding place 

within the wisteria cave – Rowen long ago 

claimed the cave within as his own, 

but like any soon-to-be 5 year-old,

surely he would welcome this intruder

Sister Squirrel full-bore runs

straight up the maple tree

she calls home – the one shading the picnic 

table with the firepit sitting abandoned 

by the pretend soldiers in civil war garb

who sat round her for warmth just weeks ago,

now cold under the table

A lone deer jogs casually across

the gravel road before me

with no look back

A raccoon runs – ambles, really – 

all roly-poly

first alongside the car

then moving in front –

not so much darting 

as deciding – deciding

that he could make it –

deciding that I would not

kill him with my behemoth 

of steel – not today

Best of all, 

a school bus of finches*

arises as one

from the evening sun-washed

yellow of the wheat field

_____________________
*A schoolbus of finches borrows from an observation by son Ben Cumberledge, that the color of goldfinches would have them better named as school-bus-yellow finches.  An Idyllic Life  Describing them as a ‘schoolbus of finches’ is in keeping with the whimsical tradition of naming clusters or groups of animals and birds based on some presupposed anthropomorphic attribute, such as a murder of crows.  Fun with Words