Saturday Ballet at Market Basket

Swarming with the morning troupe
near the eggs-and-butter cooler

magnetized next to deli counter
pirouetting between with practiced ease

bending delicately over slabs of meat
stretching gracefully for cereal mixes

waltzing toward frozen-food cases
dodging some out-of-rhythm plodders

on point for paper towel choices
bowing low before detergent soaps

threading intricate, crowded spaces
among displays of fruits and produce

swanning discretely into pastry section
twirling round and round stacks of treats

queuing up at last in chorus line of carts
eager to hear the cashier's ringing applause.

Coltsfoot

Dusty colt's feet
traipsing along
in slowest motion

leafy hoof prints
pounding soundlessly
on roadside tracks

cheerfully lugging
summer's fun
on its hospitable back.

Fall Foliage #11

One redhead
among all the green others
grabbing fall's early attention

otherwise nondescript
scraggly with unbuxom foliage
small beside tall, statuesque types

one winning moment though
seized in August's preliminaries
before autumn's official beauty contest.

Garden Warfare

Darting dive bombers
on the offensive

whizzing rockets
among flower heads

helicoptering
with tail displays

ambushes fierce
in aerial attacks

daily combatants
near hummingbird feeders.

Mr. and Mrs. Soprano

They
uneasy seatmates
on the island ferry

she
commoditized
with fancy dress and jewels

he
over preening
in Wall Street pinstripes

she
seething
with obvious disgust

he
careful
under public gaze

gambling losses
new mistress
another murder?

they
inching together
ever so slightly

compromises remembered
tangled web intact
as they disembark.

Subliminal Messages (detected while camping beside Glazier Lake in northwestern New Brunswick)

The beaver whacks the water
loons call across the lake
a shooting star lights up the sky

the beaver thwacks a welcome
loons send their eerie greetings
a shooting star flashes its cosmic hello

the beaver slaps loudly and rudely
loons communicate the same
a shooting star weeps luminous tears

the kingfisher is shrieking, too
a spectral great blue flies by
I understand.