A Walk in the South Mountain, Early Spring

…

News in the world seems pretty bad these days, but spring is coming here to the South Mountain. Not really any blossoms yet, but there are some hard buds on the tips of the branches. No dandelions to dig out and eat, but there is the watercress, the wild chives right now at their very best. Took some walks in the woods although the days were dismal in outlook, gray with gray around the edges, very little sunlight coming down on anything, and it is damp and cold. Across the cleared power line, that used to be impassable with briars and sumac, I saw a fox running gracefully into the dark brush; that was very promising; perhaps the recent coyotes aren’t taking up all the space.

…

…
I wish I knew my birds better. I know the buzzards circling high above, the ominous sound of the woodpecker echoing out of the woods, the mallards and the geese honking in their Vs overhead, the crows that come flying carefully down after I scatter fish bones and some old bread, but what are those quick little brown things singing in the branches, almost the branches, until they move, and sing and move again, a magical nameless part of things?

…

…
180

I hear the geese at first far off flying
in the distance and curious look up
to find them near the horizon slanting
forward like sentences being written
across the sky in honking changing lines
until they’re gone. Over the rocks the stream
at Walnut Run splashes down clogged with sticks
from last year’s storms. Minnows nose up this flow
like ripples they swim in below fooling
predators. Everything begins to grow.
At the corner of my eye dead leaves
shake on a branch that seems dead too except
at the very end of every stem
sharp golden buds are ready to open.

…

…
…