Leaving the Nest

[Tracy Mitchell]

~


    Leaving the Nest

I want you to go into the woods
where life is lush with surplus

I want you to listen, be healthy 
and grow fat in smatterings
of pregnant sunshine

watch a red squirrel skinny
down a quavering branch 
toward inexperienced leaves.

~

[Gyppo]

'smatterings of pregnant sunshine'

'inexperienced leaves'.

This whole thing has left me with a smile on my face, but these two phrases stand out for me.

My 86 year old neighbour has taken to feeding the squirrels in her back garden, says they're far more interesting than most of what she sees on television.  She lays a trail of monkey nuts across the grass just outside her French Windows , and they run along the fence and then visit  her.

Time with nature is never wasted.

Gyppo

[Tracy Mitchell]

Gyppo— glad your neighbor is establishing a beneficial detente with her local squirrels.  My son and his family in St. Paul are being met with a squirrel population which has apparently achieved critical mass.  They spent 4 days stripping foliage from the oaks in order to harvest the nuts.. they have also made gardening an adversarial proceeding.

T

[Gyppo]

The little sods sometimes dig up things I've planted in order to bury their own gatherings.  But I've not shot any since I moved in here.  The occasional rats have been less lucky.

[Dave]

Simple clear and sweetly playful. Nice write.
The grey squirrals came from America to Europe and bullied the reds follwed by Black squirrals bullying the greys. A funny lot.

[Tracy Mitchell]

Quite the pecking order!
Thanks Dave.

T

[Mark]

No squirrels in my neck of the no-woods. Nice to stumble across a TM nature study poem.

[skylightgreg]

Enjoyable read.

I love the way implied colors (of yellow) are splashed against the reds of the squirrel. --Makes for a word painting.