BIRDS, BOOKS & BUYING

Covid is still with us, so simple delights of being in nature and reading a good book are pleasant rewards and a good use of the extra time we have saved by buying over the internet instead of “shopping around”.  This episode tells stories in short poems about birds, books & buying in this new reality.  The final poem honors EARTH day and our place and role as human beings on this special Planet Earth.

Transcript

Covid is still with us, so simple delights of being in nature and reading a good book are pleasant rewards and a good use of the extra time we have saved by buying over the internet instead of “shopping around”.  This episode tells stories about birds, books & buying in this new reality.

MARSH TRAIL MUD

Watching birds 

clears my mind 

as I revel in their variety,

movements and beauty.

Early April morning sunrise,

The water has come down

leaving mud flats and puddles

big birds have mostly gone

and been replaced.

Smaller shore birds are here

an undulating cloud of Sanderlings 

move and land as one.

Tiny plovers legs blur

as they run around.

Black-necked stilts elegant

on their bright orange legs

dip down effortlessly.

Greater and lesser yellow legs

sandpipers eat, float and forage.

Two contrasting couples appear,

beautiful blue-winged teals 

float quietly past.

A passionate moor hen

chases his mate

flapping and splashing.

Its time to go now

the insects feeding time

and I am their food.

BOOKS

Outside the  library

 i carefully pick up

books tumbling

out of the boys arms

I smile

The small boy so excited

holding so many books.

Maybe i was like that too

on my first library visit

which opened up 

many new worlds

for me.

I’m happy to see

books are still read

even as iPads 

seem so often

to win attention.

The tactile turning of pages,

feeling the weight of the book,

seeing the writers words in print,

knowing many others held this book

makes me happy.

I am inspired to go to my library

and browse the shelves, 

instead of the internet,

and pick a book out

that offers itself to me;

hoping I will take it home

and it feels my eyes looking 

and my warm hands cradling it

then this book knows

it is loved.

COVID SHOPPING & SHIPPING #1

I am waiting for the box to arrive.

I must order something first.

Then there is great satisfaction,

finding the box outside

before the text tells me its here

this reminds me

my ESP is working faster

than the internet

and the drivers fingers.

COVID SHOPPING & SHIPPING #2

Amazon Prime is almost an addiction,

I want to see how fast it arrives,

until I realize that the orders

are filled by people forced

to rush around, reach and twist;

chased by robotic baskets

in a race to keep their jobs.

I hate that line I remember 

from my boss years ago,

“you’re lucky to have a job”.

COVID SHOPPING & SHIPPING #3

The bags of food appeared miraculously

as if we had asked for 10 lbs of flour,

a six pack of heineken 

and 3 flavors of melting ice cream.

Before the bag becomes glass bottles

coated with creamy raw gluten

A risk the shopper had not imagined.

the true owner claimed his food.

EARTH DAY

Wednesday was Earth Day 2021.

Looking out of the window

the graceful swallow-tailed kite

effortlessly swooped past.

Tuesday I lay in the dirt

watching wide eyed burrowing owls

watching me.

On Midway Island

the Laysan albatross, Wisdom

still lays an egg

at the age of seventy.

Reminding us that we humans

are guests and guardians

of this living planet.

©MartinStrasmore2021