Six Mile Cypress Slough January 2, 2018

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Village Edge Muscovy Ducks January 2, 2018

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quantum state being

Gender engenders estrangement from our selves

Bifurcating humanity as if we are not one species

Sexuality dividing adults from children

Male and female separated like odd and even numbers.

Living in the context of contemporary social relations

Infused with the ruling patriarchal superiority

Sometimes an odd thought overtakes my brain

Thinking for a moment that I inhabit an alternate body.

I have masculine and feminine in me

I have both child and adult in me

I am young and old, potential and realized

I embody every possible aspect of uncertainty.

You may see me as a singular old man

Dancing with visions of sugar plums and fairies

Gnomes and elves and jingling bells

Cutting geometric patterns into the ice.

You may not find me as pure as driven snow

Covering the world pristine as a tabula rasa

Leaving a quiet hush as the storm tapers off

Waiting to glitter crystalline under the cold blue sky.

In the dark days between the solstice and the new year

I am alive and dead like a bare naked tree

I am arriving and departing as we all are

I am awake in a dream of time passing.

winter solstice 2017

We watched three eagles fly to the crest

Soaring over the hilltop where we live

Early afternoon on the winter solstice

Circling up above until they became distant specks

Their unexpected presence surprised us

So unusual the sight of three adults together

So lovely to admire those iconic white heads and tails

Flashing as they turned in the slanted sunlight

This vision in the sky might be taken as an augury

In times past when avian encounters signified

Some portent of the future possible to know

While our thoughts turn towards a simpler explanation

With the ponds sealed by ice as the arctic air invades

The fishers gather round what open water remains

Hereabouts having seen a dozen eagles in one tree

Perched in January by the reservoir edge

These are winter visitors arriving from the north

A serendipity for us to catch a chance to see them

Before we flee from this frozen landscape

To our subtropical sojourn awaiting warmer days

We heard the horned owl softly hooting last night

Audible to us in the quiet time after lights out

Penetrating the walls and closed windows

Calling to its mate somewhere near our house

Another sign of things to come we hope

If they should nest nearby this winter

Brooding their eggs in February for our return

Presenting us with fledgling owlets in April

For it seems these owls are indifferent to the season

Nesting in Florida at the same time as in New Jersey

Though what they use for their nest varies locally

We will watch there and anticipate what might be here