Friday, September 2, 2016

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.

No comments:

Post a Comment