First,
before the noise
& day’s distractions,
comes late summer
dove song & the steady
antiphonal calm
of cicada rhythms,
later found as empty drum skins,
discarded exoskeletons strung
as empty shrub ornaments
in our front yard.
Yellow & black swallowtail
butterflies swirl, dance
upon bright orange feathered
blossoms & a single
green dragonfly
sits perched,
conducting upon a stick.
Silver hose water flows steady
into a bed of parched &
seedy wildflowers
while an August sweat
slowly trickles down my neck.
Gently, I rescue two striped
monarch caterpillars
from the last leaf
of a sun-spent milkweed plant,
then carefully place them
on another, still full,
green enough
to fill their hunger.
Up above my head hops
a golden fronted woodpecker
who feasts upon a ripe plenty
of bright orange granjeno
drupes hung upon
the tree.
Later, he taps
some loud Morse code message
from the tall branched ash,
proclaiming to all
within hearing
that Life is
good.

© by Elizabeth Perdomo.
Used here with the author’s permission.