Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

rain patters
 in the rice paddy;
  a frog croaks.

bats hang in bamboo —
 blanket-wrapped in wings —
  hang like their food, fruit.

Fish mill about the koi pond --
   No hooks or fishnets;
 Just falling leaves to break up
    Hours into minutes.

bushy black tail
 waves frantically:
  squirrel alarm.

drying cormorant
 folds up its wings, resigned
  to grounding by rain.

a starling stomps,
 like a masked bandit, 
  across dusty earth.

solitary fish
 darts about at lake's edge:
  taunting fates & fishers.

horses graze upon
 dandelions and green grass,
  under snowy heights.

the rocky tip
 of grass-coiffed outcrop
  is all I see,
 but the sound of a crow's "CAW!"
 comes through loud & clear.

langur in a tree
 remains still as others flee;
  it seems to know
 my limitations as well as
 its own capabilities.