Tiger Riding for Beginners

Traveling Poet Philosopher & Occasional Wiseacre

summer evening:
 long shadows climb steps
  their source won’t reach.

spider works its prey;
 its movement is beautiful.
  its spikes - less so.

black-eyed susans
 nudge me into Van Gogh's world,
  but not too deeply.

the river's surface,
 glassy from above, looks
  choppy from the edge.

cooter cranes its neck:
 impulse to know greater than
  impulse to shelter.

limestone hillsides
 slough to form lasting scars
  in a treed landscape.

a stag beetle
 lifts pincers in warning;
  tender flesh at feet.

a bee hovers
 between two wildflowers,
  in a quandary.

a duck trio
 does a lazy do-si-do
  with eyes closed.

once stately mansion,
 weedy & paint peeling:
  entropy incarnate.