letting go

November 17 - November 21 Week 42 /72

colors are dimming

the bird feeder is dominated by

visitors dressed only in black

white and a full slate of grays

a female cardinal magically dissolves

into a background of tree trunks

except for the reddish-orange wedge

of her beak pointing towards

white turtlehead and swamp milkweed

plants who have loosened their grip

on hundreds of gifts for the spring

lips of the seedpods once plump and full

have dried and split open sending flat

Chelone discs tumbling into the marshy soil

while the seeds of Asclepias steal away

sailing on silky white filaments as

Mercury and Venus play in the sky