Two Poems about nature
Poems #3,4
Portrait
On canvas large as life the dots appear
cadmium yellow specks in pointillist style
on a base of green – emerald to kelly to fir
Painted by nature itself with the simplest of strokes
and only one subject, a weed to most,
lawn’s dismay, but sun’s delight under tiny chins
Hated by foes, to those who care to see
the pasture glows with cinemascopic beauty:
a feast for the eyes, dandelion wine for the soul.
7/2/98
Whirlybirds
The invasion begins with a whisper
one breeze calling to comrades-in-arms;
soon breeze becomes gust
and gust becomes torrent
and torrent becomes maelstrom.
Now the helicopters appear
few at first, then dozens,
then whole squadrons too many to count,
swarming about, erasing sky and land
masking all sound by blades’ whirr in flight
Ground troops take cover, digging in,
defending their turf, all but defenseless,
vastly outnumbered, scurrying about
in futile attempts to ward off attack.
Whirligigs continue to land en masse
storming the earth; in minutes victory is theirs,
the fittest surviving by majority rule:
the war is won, the maples live on.
7/2/98