Fiddlehead Scrolls

Three hundred fifty
million years ago the first
ferns unfurled their fronds

What made me think I
could move a few to a hedge
under front windows

Without their taking
over the adjacent beds
Pure folly, that's what

~dkm 255/365

Mistake

Thought I could plant one
Small lenten rose in center
of raised flower box

Surround it each year
with colorful annuals for
quick and pretty bed

Oh no, clamored the
evolutionary gods
Hast thou forgotten

What thou learnest re
Survival of the fittest?
Spreading seedlings win!

~dkm 254/365

Taste of Summer

First garden mint brew
and ice of the season. O
spring o spring o sprig

~dkm 253/365

Already

Robins are splashing
in fresh water of birdbath
Eighty-four degrees

~dkm 252/365

Kitchen Scraps

Two holes, same garden
One dug at edge never worked
One in flower bed
With homemade compost
Stirred in for twenty/five years
Red clay transformed

~dkm 251/365

Pileated Woodpecker In The Wayback

As if that cackle
I've been hearing weren't enough,
Today's find of a

Square hole in bark of
a standing dead tree, or snag,
is proof positive

~dkm 250/365

Cherry Blossoms Falling

To sit in their midst
To breathe as they float, to hold
the fallen petals

Is to clear the mind
And heart and body and soul
On every warm breeze

~dkm 249/365

Even the Wren

Adamant orders
Stay at home, stay at home, stay
Ensign of COVID

~dkm 248/365

Fragile in Time

Rain all day today
Cherry blossoms raining down
Beauty against storm

Wet blossoms tracked in
on boots, temporal sign of
the value of now

~dkm 247/365

Gardening with a Mimid

Could he be taunting
me? Hard to tell, but he goes
where I go to sing

He's good, too. He sounds
like the species he copies
Phoebe, titmouse, wren

Cardinal, robin
Red tailed and red shouldered hawks
Even a bluebird

dkm 246/365

Birding By Ear

Repeated shriek of
Red-shouldered hawk alarm call
RS overhead

dkm 245/365

Vole, Mole, or Mouse?

Tomcat on patrol
Crouch, watch, pounce, hold, clamp in jaws
Escape with catch

Whatever you do
Don't let that woman with the
Cam'ra steal your prize

~dkm 244/365

March Grace

Each spring more thrilling

Than the last. Comes a gladness

with budding and leaf

Sacred sensation

Forced by it's lack for a time

And expected return

The flush of pale green

The yellow, the pink, the white

The freshness of lime

~dkm 243/365

H1N1 Spanish Flu Pandemic of 1918-1919

In 1919
My grandfather wrote on the
side of his desk drawer

"All had the flu but Dave, all in bed—
Little Gid quite sick.
Docky Wells here to see him."

"Slept on couch all time.
Did not have my pants off in
1919 up to this date."

"David G. Yoder
Jan. 8, 1919
Wellman, Iowa"

He was 25
No deaths in his family
But some known to him

Spanish flu horror
50 million dead world wide
Nearly one million (in U. S.)

I inherited
Grandpa Yoder's desk in time
What shall I write now...

100 years hence...
that the halfwit Donald Trump
shut down the office

that worked to prevent
another pandemic of
the same magnitude?

And two years later
COVID 19 pandemic
can not be halted?

~dkm 242/365

Faded note in 2020
written in 1919

Grandpa Yoder and desk in 1989
Grandpa, age 97

Desk in 2020

Sweet Discovery With Apology

Ahhhh! A small cache
Of nuts buried by squirrel (?)
Found in compost heap

Sorry to disturb
She said as she buried her
kitchen scraps supreme

~dkm 241/365

Beauty and Truth of COVID 19 Season

Pure white daffodils
In full bloom to blunt advice

#Stay the fuck at home

~dkm 240/365

Of Quarantine and Gratitude

Friends knocked on my door
"Come to your backyard for a
Safe chat in fresh air."

~dkm 239/365

Bumblebee Porch Dilemma

While I thank them for
our food supply, I'm not so
fond of their drilling

~dkm 238/365

Brown Headed Icteridae

The greedy red-winged
blackbirds have passed through, leaving
their dreaded cousins

Today I shooed a
cowbird from the worm feeder
And the bluebird stayed

~dkm 237/365

Meditating With a Mimid

Mockingbird on branch
Operatic arias
One hour of song

~dkm 236/365

Mating Behavior?

Bluebirds in mid-air
Spinning and crashing times five
Wham bam, thank you ma'am

~dkm 235/365

On Record

Since 1890
Wettest and warmest winter
It's raining again

~dkm 234/365

From the Ground Up

The yard glows with a
Silver light twice reflected
Full moon at midnight

~dkm 233/365

Unsurprising Surprise

In the compost heap
A celery stub took root
And grew in a day

~dkm 232/365

Cool Breath and Sunny

Finally, after
exactly three months of clouds
Celebrate this day

~dkm 231/365

Backyard Path 3/a

Come to the Wayback
with me. Sit and meditate
Gomukhasana
~dkm 230/365

Cow face yoga pose

Birdsong in Endless Rain

Return me to sleep
Early morning lullaby
Only one bluebird

~dkm 229/365

The One Branch

One cherry tree limb
Always the same lower limb
Blooms first every year

~dkm 228/365

Despite His Vigilance

Self preservation
Dandelion versus Moe
Behold the beauty

~dkm 227/365

Nature vs Civilization

Green moss, grass, and weeds
Ignoring humanity
Grown over rain grate

Fifteen years hidden
Till one hard rain flooded the
clogged drain and lowspot

Moss, dislodged, revealed
cast iron grate, only to
regrow in next ten

~dkm 226/365

Unrewarded Search

Unlike calls I know
to be common around here
Came one bold and shrill

New and sharp and loud
No luck on Chirp USA
No google for sounds

Can hear but not see
Acadian Flycatcher?
Migrating northward?

~dkm 225/365