The trip to the farm, a nine hour drive offered

ample signs of Spring each pothole, dugout or

slough boasted a complement of Green Winged Teal,

Shovellers, Pintails, Scaups, Mallards, Coots, Grebes,

Buffleheads and countless others.

Flocks of gulls claimed the roads.

At the cabin flocks of Sandhill Cranes,

and a flock of Snowgeese with the black shadows

of Cormorants for contrast flew by.

At the farm mixed flocks of Sparrows claimed the lawn

and a trip to the hardware store was rewarded by the

sight of a Fox trotting along the road and the black shape

of  a Fisher (?) slipping thru a fence.

Signs of Spring

A lash of light; across a brown stage.

The trees begin: their green dance.

                                           Guy

"Last night the geese came back,
slanting fast
from the blossom of the rising moon down
to the black pond. A muskrat
swimming in the twilight saw them and hurried

to the secret lodges to tell everyone
spring had come."

  Two Kinds of Deliverance

                            Mary Oliver