sssshhhh

The Sunday crows conversed

in the crowns of the sequoias.

Below, a polyglot of awe-filled

comments filled the spaces

under the giants.

Global visitors whispering

at the back of a cathedral.

A little girl said,

Is he in heaven…

No honey…

but he’s in the sky isn’t he…

… look there’s a rainbow.

It wasn’t a rainbow.

It was a sundog,

A rainbow ring around the

zenith of the noon day sun.

A tiny streamlet filtering

through moss, a fairy Niagara

ttrickled and giggled her secrets.

I probably spoke too much.

I wept. I laughed.

I thumped a heartbeat

on the resonant bark

Of an ancient redwood.

Tuesday morning my throat

fought back. Sore and tight,

even for a sip of water.

Wednesday, long before the dawn

I woke, hot with fever.

I went out to the porch

Seeking a moment

of cooling breeze

and saw the crisp crescent

sliver of the waning moon.

Two days of silence, aspirin,

and honey.

Two days of the DC circus.

When I went to the local store

to buy some orange juice

and throat lozenges

I found that I had been

transformed into a frog.

Croaking out, good afternoon

and thank you.