John Haag

1 Clouds so thick they put down roots Young aspen practising quakers Incoming geese Periwinkle sign passports brings remission with a V of the blues Feel the sun butting the buds open Blossoms Trout lilies nod expand they know the sky they know Lilac a scent by which we mark the calendar Weather report May? showers By all means and fresh rainbows Yes. You May 2 Crickets ventriloquists of summer Loon cries increase the loneliness of lakes It’s untrue They leave that that bats to the silence make it darker of owls Morning warblers refresh the joy of hearing Comes the hedgehog And the bumblebee who lives on pins non-aerodynamic and needles existentialist Horses stand awash in the setting sun Anticipate Nighthawks if you can swoop the firefly’s flash gathering the evening 3 Prophetic winds fill the graveyard with signposts Then a scurry of stormspurred sparrows A lamentation of geese Hummingbird leaves in the early to cruise dusk the Carribean Squirrels pad their acorn accounts Cedar waxwing Blue jay insists feathered scholar it’s never too late knows his berries to scold Grackle predicts a turn for the worse Flies buzz in this cast-iron against the chill autumn pane stained with rust 4 Fly husks on sills reflect the year’s demise Ptarmigan advises “kuk-kuk-kuk go back-goback” Deer bundle Coyote lingers in the laurel to school us thickets in survival Fashionable spruce knows how to wear snow Strange angels Frostfeathers leave their three-D lace shadows the cabin glass Cabin Fever medicine runs low As Days does begin the woodpile to lengthen