readings: lyrical words, memories, in “A Lap Full of Monarchs” Sharon Lovejoy – A BOOK OF TOADS; THE WILD BRAID, Stanley Kunitz ; teachings of Betty Komarek, Birdsong Nature Center, where I resided one summer, care-taking.
Back in March I yanked an invasive thorned vine off ou
big black mailbox only to discover my mistake –
I also wrenched a thorn-tangled
sweet jasmine vine that sheltered an underleaf jewel,
nature-glued.
What to do? Leave a treasure somewhere
out there? Under grandmother oak? Nestled among
ferns?
Because I’ve met Sharon Lovejoy and Betty Komarek,
because I’m a reader of Sharon Lovejoy and Stanley Kunitz
I knew, I knew.
With worried hands, I carried jewel on vine fragment
Aqua box
transparent nursery
paper mache wiggle
hang out to dry
probe cut-fruit sustenance
“Watch”c.2020JGAnnino
But!
Usually-welcome little brown lizard
creeps up (off-camera) thru foliage outside
yon door. Spotted not by me,
but by my eagle-eyed husband,
attorney advocate for kids,
who misses little about a predator.
Butterfly hadn’t graduated from walking to
more than a bunny hop, yet.
I stopped taking video & stills, tip-toed past
ground-floor butterfly &
placed barriers between it & the liz.
After about 6 ticking minutes, monarch did fly
out & up & away, on Easter Sunday, 2020. As Betty Komarek would say, “Blessed Be.”
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