Bird Speak

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Maggie C

Day 23 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a poem that focuses on birdsong. I wrote about birds, but not songbirds. Oh, well. Here ’tis:

Bird Speak

Scrub-jay squawks accusingly at me
from atop my backyard fence.
What offence I may have committed, 
I do not know, but he’s got that
“you know what you did” tone.
“I shouldn’t have to tell you.” 

Always a tricky situation. Do you
try to guess, and risk confessing to something
they didn’t even know you'd done? Do you 
ask forgiveness, even though you don’t know for what? 
Am I overthinking the meaning of this jay’s
strident vocalizations? 

My dog Chules joins me on the deck, and the scrub jay
aims his admonishments at the pup. 
Now I know he’s just making stuff up. 
Chules is a good boy, and – while he’s been known to
chase some wildlife now and again – 
he always gives them a good head start
lest he actually catch something. 

Rather abruptly, scrub jay zips his beak, and
flits up into the canopy of the black walnut tree. 
A large black crow swoops over my rooftop
and lands on the fence, inches from where the 
jay had been holding court moments ago. 
With one loud caw, he announces: there’s
a new corvid in town. I don’t see a badge, 
but I won’t argue.

Chules and I are forgiven our sins, so long as 
we don’t try to pull any of that crap on the crow. 
Mind you, crow has no better idea of 
our transgressions than Chules and I do. 
We agree to his terms nonetheless. 

Chules is tempted to run at the crow and scare him off the fence,
but thinks better of it when he remembers being previously 
dive-bombed by said bird for just such behavior. 
I go back to pulling weeds, and the scrub jay… well, 
we likely won’t hear much from him for a while.

Special Delivery

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Maggie C

Day 15 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a six-line poem that has these qualities: informed by repetition, simple language, and expressing enthusiasm. And so…

Special Delivery

It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s coming! 
I heard it in my sleep! Two streets down.
Do you hear it now? Come outside!
I can’t see it, but I’ll bark my head off anyway, and 
jump and paw at the fence, because it's coming: the day I
finally break outta here and catch that mail truck!

Groundhogs and Shadows

Posted on February 3, 2025 by Maggie C

I did not see a groundhog yesterday, shadowed or otherwise. Nor did I see my own shadow. I stayed inside, shying from the cold and wind and rain.

My doggo, on the other hand, made several forays around the fenced yard, but did not report back on what critters or what shadows he may have encountered. He usually plays things close to his vest that way. A pup of many barks, but few words.

More winter, or early spring? I must wait and see.

earliest of blooms
dandelions tucked beneath
unmown grass shadows

dVerse Haibun Monday prompt: Groundhog’s Day

Youthlessness

Posted on April 11, 2023 by Maggie C

Oh, to yet be young

I tire at the thought of it

I’ll sit and look wise

Wordless Wednesday ~ snow white

Image

Bird Talk

Posted on April 2, 2022 by Maggie C

Day Two NaPoWriMo prompt: Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem based on a word featured in a tweet from Haggard Hawks, an account devoted to obscure and interesting English words.

I used the tweet pictured below, which gave the words for the sounds certain birds make.

Herewith, my poem:

Oh, Dr. Seuss, you silly goose,

you loved to glacitate.

You wrote that owls go hoo hoo hoo.

In truth, they cucubate.

Your nonsense rhymes, those made-up words,

a lazy way to write.

So many real words just as fun,

and downright erudite.

A rooster doesn’t “cock-a-doodle do”

when he cucuriates.

And the hen’s response might well be “cluck,”

but — to rhyme — she glocidates.

Toward “wockets in pockets” I hold no grudge,

but to my ear, it grates;

like the striddly stry of a peacock’s cry

when it so poopity pupillates.

Just One

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Maggie C

For Cee’s Black and White photo Challenge (CBWC): just one of anything.

I thought I heard a hawk of some sort the other day, so I stepped out on the deck to look for it. This squirrel was balled up on a nearby branch, maybe trying to make himself invisible to the bird of prey.

The bird that was making all the ruckus finally flew to the same tree, but it wasn’t a hawk at all. I’m thinking it was one of those tricky fellows that can mimic other bird calls. Good enough to fool both the squirrel and me!