April 29
Last fall’s heavy mast
saved wild turkey and deer,
gave squirrel and crows and jay
enough to stash away.
But in this month,
the acorn feast
is only duff to us,
a hearty send-off lunch
packed by the oak to its acorn,
gone to compost heap.
But those that landed out of reach
stretch out their thin green lines
and fish their way to root.
–by MCPerez
April 21
So much goes into
the planting of peas.
Hard, shriveled things
more like tiny, deflated soccer balls
than vessels of promise.
We sow them before the leaves bud out,
the soil cold to the touch.
They are a prayer we say to ourselves,
knees in dirt:
Bring us summer
and the woven baskets of orioles
strung from the blossoming locust trees,
pods heavy with sweetness,
and the earth warmed,
giving us back all we have lost.
–by MCPerez
April 22, Earth Day
We wanted to catch things,
bring them inside with us,
the butterflies that drifted in their uncertain way,
baby mice tucked in the hayfield,
the eggs of robins, blue as sky.
We wanted to pluck petals from daisies,
stuff Dandelions in vases,
take all the earth had to give
that day
and in days to come.
But she who hung sheets in the wind
said to us softly, taught us gently,
Leave it be
–by MCPerez
April 23
The shadows of trees
flow leafless across my path,
thin enough to jump over.
By May they will fatten into ponds,
lakes of shadows
and the quiver of song
from the warbler above me
will fill the air
–by MCPerez
Sun hot on my back.
Cold wind in my face. April:
month of many moods.
–by Evelyn Hanna
April 24
Goldfinches, bright as daffodils,
arrive in flocks. Like teenage girls,
the popular ones,
who always have the best clothes
for the right season.
They jibber and jabber even the squirrels
off the feeders.
Chickadees, wearing the same old suits,
retreat to the tree tops.
So, I can’t help but love the party crashers,
two crows,
who roar in every afternoon
not for no damn seed,
but just for the hell of it.
–by MCPerez
April 25
Only one robin’s song
fell upon the hush of silence
this morning..
The sky, a curtain drawn.
Now sun.
The lights come on.
Goldfinches gather at the feeder
The little theatre is open again.
–by MCPerez
April 26
It is a hard life for a bee
on this cold and rainy April day.
The blossoms that should be
are fists of resistance.
The bees buzz, the bees bump.
No answer.
Thank God for the Dandelions
overrunning a slope of yard.
Deep rooted and rowdy,
they flash their welcome.
Come on in. We’re open.
–by MCPerez
A long day of rain
made puddles ready for bird’s
communal bathing.
–by Jeanne Frank
Walking. Waving black
flies away. They need to learn
social distancing.
–by Evelyn Hanna