Earlier this afternoon

snow was spitting from
an almost totally blue sky.
such things happen,
I suppose,
just in the
nature of things.

I am constantly amazed
and amused
by the natural world.
there is a blue heron
that seems to live in the canal
down the hill from our house.
he seems oddly misplaced
to me,
but just to see him move
and watch the grace
he walks with
is worth a trip
down the hill
to the canal.

and on Route 9,
around Middletown and further south,
there are large birds circling,
that I imagine
to be hawks
and, from time to time,
chickens on the side of the road
around exits 10 and 9.
chickens, for goodness sake.

Someone from Killingworth
told me they'd seen them too--
the chickens.
we didn't talk about the hawks.