Audubon Corkscrew Sanctuary January 7, 2020

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Caloosahatchee Regional Park January 6, 2020

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cosmic time lag

Six hundred years ago give or take

The way it was before Columbus invaded America

The light I see arriving tonight left Betelgeuse

The red spot on the right shoulder of Orion.

I could not read the sky constellations as a boy

Ignorant except for what my friend Nicky saw

Pointing out what he called the three sisters

The cluster that I later learned comprises the belt.

Living close to the light pollution of Manhattan

Only the brightest stars are visible if any

Where another Nick who calls me Tommy lives

Reminding me of my childhood dreams.

Someone smarter than me figured out the dimensions

The distance to that red giant star so enormous

The orbits of Earth, Mars and perhaps Jupiter

All would be enclosed within its diameter.

Compared against the blueish left foot Rigel

The red glow of Betelgeuse shows forth

Turning the night sky into sparkling colors

An amazing scene hidden above our urban lives.

Betelgeuse is pulsating strangely bright and dim

Perhaps about to burst into a supernova

So bright it would be visible in the daytime

A cosmic event sure to frenzy the believers.

But what we would be seeing is such old news

Traveling the distance from there to here at the speed of light

Try to imagine what our world will be like

By the time what is happening there now gets here.

Harns Marsh January 5, 2019

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Wild Turkey Strand January 4, 2020

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Buckingham Park Cypress Slough January 3, 2020

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the new normal

Things aren’t getting any better

When people say it's the new normal

Following a turn for the worse that persists 

Sadly realizing there will be no going back.

As if the personal and the political go in parallel

I hear this expression frequently from my friends

Who are struggling with the infirmities of age

Used similarly for the degeneration of the state.

It stands to reason that old people would conflate

Their own demise with the world around them

But the smash and grab cabal in power now

May very well pull it all down around them.

This much is certain we all peak and decline

If we are around to see what happens next

Step by step descending towards nothingness

Leaving the next generation to make the future.

But just for today the Florida sun warms my skin

The new leaves of early spring sprout from their buds

And hungry birds call and move through the greenery

Living life fully present in this time and place. 

Six Mile Cypress Slough January 2, 2019

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