This is National Poetry Month, so I'd best post some poetry! For some reason this is the one that slid to the front of the line.

~ One Act

This is a messy place

indifferent to my preferences,

a jillion plays enacted on one stage

simultaneously—oh, the props crash

and egos thrash as we vie to distract

other players from their scenes long enough

to have an audience for our own.

Thank goodness for the wild creatures

who couldn’t care a jot

except to avoid our madness.

Their scenes are better orchestrated . . .

forests that drip and chirp and listen

and find room for any seed or egg

determined to participate . . .

moonscapes of sand that reinvent themselves

by the hour, by the millennium,

keeping an invisible menagerie endlessly occupied . . .

soft waters that give and take, give and take,

birthing treasures infinitely specific:

the mossy fringe that propels, imperceptibly,

a baby sand dollar.

It is as it should be

that the sea shall always be easily able

to keep secrets from us,

in smoky black waters miles below sunlight

or under a millimeter of sand.

It is for the greater good

that always, deep beneath our play,

the core of the planet burns and churns,

lest we believe

our stage is built on solid ground.

Our camera fell on the floor and broke last week, just as everything is blooming! Luckily everything bloomed last year, too, including this Columbine (with tiny occupant) in my aunt's garden. While I'm at it, here are some more little friends I've found through the lens.