Natural Histories II
Epiphanous Weather
The sudden shaft of sunlight
through the shifting clouds
illuminates the distant patch of ground
and thrills the stomach, heart and lungs
despite no food, no sex, no violence.
Red Wasps
In truth, they are not red
but chestnut.
But “Chestnut Wasp” lacks menace
and might lead us to let them in
despite the black, compound eyes
and smooth, twitching stinger.
Blue Moon
If the Moon should fall
or only fly away,
we'd all be dead,
done in by finer points
in the calculus
of orbital mechanics.
Grackle, Late August
Poor drab thing-
molting, she has
lost the two
long tail feathers
and looks Kiwi-like
without them which
slows her not
one bit chasing
after crickets and
beetles for her
chirping flightless brood.
The sudden shaft of sunlight
through the shifting clouds
illuminates the distant patch of ground
and thrills the stomach, heart and lungs
despite no food, no sex, no violence.
Red Wasps
In truth, they are not red
but chestnut.
But “Chestnut Wasp” lacks menace
and might lead us to let them in
despite the black, compound eyes
and smooth, twitching stinger.
Blue Moon
If the Moon should fall
or only fly away,
we'd all be dead,
done in by finer points
in the calculus
of orbital mechanics.
Grackle, Late August
Poor drab thing-
molting, she has
lost the two
long tail feathers
and looks Kiwi-like
without them which
slows her not
one bit chasing
after crickets and
beetles for her
chirping flightless brood.
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Other stories by Gary Hardaway
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great!
Ah, so much fun to read!
These series pieces are wonderful. The Red Wasps are my favorite.
Often there's a distinctive, uneasy partnership with nature in your poems, Gary. Interesting, but not always instantly accessible to me. Then when I re-read, I usualy twig on something I missed, fire up an old synapse or two **
Each one of these is pretty perfect in its way. Too bad you don't care about publication : )
Gary, somehow you manage to imbue tension in all of your poems. Sort of like a brooding storm or the calm just before a tornado (or tsunami) strikes. The first poem especially leaves me with shivers. Peace *
Thank you, James.
Fun to read is a very savory compliment, Sera. Thank you.
Red Wasps is my favorite, too, Steve. Thank you for reading these little pieces.
Carol, one can love the natural and be well aware that at any moment, the natural can end one. The great beauty of nature is that it just doesn't care about our feelings one way or the other. Thank you, as always, for reading these and sharing your very accurate and interesting insights.
I'd love to be more widely published, Joani, but my fragile balloon of an ego can't take the the little pricks of rejection all that often.
Thank you for that observation about tension, Linda. I like that attribute very much.
Great lines:
"done in by finer points
in the calculus
of orbital mechanics"
Wonderful. Nice harmonies in this set. The pieces work well together.
Thank you, Sam, for noting the Blue Moon piece. Wasn't sure how it played. And thanks for reading the suite with an ear/eye to the consort.