What Humans Do

This poem was written on the back porch of our friend's house in Port Lorne, Nova Scotia.  I wrote while Marissa sat nearby with a water color pad as the afternoon shadows stretched out across the meadow. In part this poem is in response to the David Byrne song of a similar name.  It is also more simply an expression of the wonderful sense of freedom that arises while sitting in a high meadow in late August sunlight on the south west coast of Nova Scotia.  

What we humans do

Is clear a wood lot

And then watch as

It slowly grows back

To a less kempt state

That’s where we’re situated

Right now somewhere

In between the forest

And the meadow

With an apple tree

Sitting in the middle

Of the backyard

Susan says the coyotes

Around here are nearly

Eighty percent wolf

And the neighbor’s dogs

Tied up in the shade

Aren’t too happy about it either

As we can tell from their
Long mournful barking

Photo by Marissa Bridge

If you're interested you can read a few other poems composed in or around the same spot here and here.