Ordinary Day

Staggering power
Propels ant across sidewalk
Toting food to nest

Energy for the
Impossible every day
Lesson of the ant

~dkm 42/365

Fungi Kingdom 4

Distinctive mushrooms
Doing their work in the yard
Changing every day

From a third domain
Neither plant nor animal
The Fungi Kingdom

Decomposers all
Could they be harnessed? Made to
Do their work on call?

Has anyone asked
If mushrooms could save the earth?
Decompose plastic?

~dkm 41/365

Brown Caps Day 1

Brown Caps Day 3

Toadstool Day 1

Toadstool Day 3

Candy Corn Day 1

Candy Corn Day 3

Flat Tops Day 1

Flat Tops Day 3

Fungi Kingdom 3

New fungi on steps
Another like it in grass
Consuming earth's waste

If their only work
Is to clean house, I wonder
Why the stark beauty.

~dkm 40/365

Backyard Path 4

Stone steps, feral fern
Conductors to The Wayback
Birthplace of story

~dkm 39/365

Natural Born Legacy

My grandmother prayed
My mother gardened, I sit
Outside and listen

One daughter knits, one
Daughter paints, one daughter takes
A walk in the woods

Husband goes golfing
Grandson makes up piano riffs
Granddaughter runs track

Did we learn it from
The grandmother, or is it
Our very nature

To need a daily
Ritual of slow quiet time?
Spiritual practice

~dkm 38/365

Grandson contemplating in leaves

Backyard Path 3

Solo morning walk
Archway to decomposing
Armed with pail, pen, book

~dkm 37/365

American Goldfinch

Male finch feeding young
Regurgitating his food
Pumps his throat, then stabs

How moving to watch
Responsible bird fathers
Tending their fledglings

~dkm 36/365

Reward for Stillness

A whir and a buzz
A hummingbird hovering
Beside my right ear

~dkm 35/365

 shortly after ear buzz

Fungi Kingdom 2

The morning after
One rainy night in Georgia
Two odd new fungi

Dull brown in green grass
Tri-color in brown compost
Summer surprises

~dkm 34/365

At Lake Jackson

Mayflies swarm from lake
To live, mate, lay eggs, and die
In just one day

Nymphs wait for a year
In mud at bottom of lake
Till adults emerge

Mayflies have no mouths
Don't live long enough to eat
Need only to mate

Mayflies on screen door
Indicate healthy water
Good news, Lake Jackson!

~dkm 33/365