“The Garden Shower Option For Cruddy Guys”

crispy, creamy clean

reminds of boot camp showers:

just cold – in-and-out!*

 

*(At both Parris Island and later at Infantry Training Regiment in North Carolina when late Fall winds brought snow flurries – just so many hot water showerheads were the norm and guys queued up around those coveted fonts of hot water.  I and a few – very few – others just doused selves in cold, soaped and doused again, and were out in but a minute or two.  The others looked, shuddered and endured trainers wrath at taking so long. My garden has a dedicated shower head – cold only – hidden from sight by a bough of Live Oak and a towering mass of blue-tip palmetto on three sides – Florida native sleeping hibiscus and Japanese-born azaleas hedge the fourth side from view.  Bathing trunks, towels, shampoo and soap-n-cloth and I track no more than my usual dirt and grime indoors and – like long ago, I take but a brief time.)

“Overtime Workers”

overtime bees take drink

from my garden-hose splatters –

must refill bird baths

“Old Crow Unbottled”

one old quiet crow

suffers starlings and grackles

its powerline perch

“Modesty?”

Missus Cardinal

stares her next demand at me:

Move! I wanna bathe!

“Aerial Garbageman”

Gently floating ‘neath

the greying clouds, circling,

this winged cleaner.

“The Chase”

Thrush chase cardinal,

jay chases thrush; mockingbird

eyes the silent crow.

“ALight Snack For Chums”

Some old friends – the crows –

flew by  to taste the vomit

stuccoing my street.

“Fast Food”

Visiting hawk drops

onto the big Live Oak limbs –

squirrel now is served!

“Thus, The Cycle Renews”

Osprey asks after

breakfast this crisp March morning:

Eagles are watching…

“In Search Of Supper” Tanka 139

wind-swept crows scouting

winter’s even cold-front gone roost:

stiff-leg black cat prowls

.

the lone bald eagle misses

a late-day treat for its brood!