"Lucky I am
to go off to my cancer appointment
having been given a bluebird, and,
for a lifetime, having been given
this world."
      – Ted Kooser, from Winter Morning Walks






april 4

cool afternoon but sun ablaze


Unexpected april snow has turned
the black river bay ablaze.
The city two halves–
yards radiant white lamps below,
beaming back to a cloudless dome a pure baby blue.
As we walk along the road
toward the main channel,
we stop to watch in the iceless bay the bald eagles
one by one take their turn
leaping from their stiff oak limbs
to circle low a hundred swimming pelicans,
fanning them up and away,
wings like tissue burning to ash above a campfire.
Seagulls descend in their place –
a brief swirl of white smoke lingering
along the shoreline beach.