bull snakes

a walk in the woods
near dog gypsys angel patch
close to her cabin porch
a bull snake slithering
into a broken angel statue
a friend carefully removed
each broken piece
secured the snake in his hand
and headed for the back of the woods
where he released it
he said it was a male
on his way back he ran into the female
and also released it in the back of the woods
bull snakes play dead when captured
they hiss at you and bite
they are not poisonous
this is their woods
we are the visitors

bull snakes

a walk in the woods
a bull snake
slithering quietly
into a broken angel statue
in gypsys angel patch
near the cabin
a friend retrieved it
and moved it
to the back of the woods
he said it was a big male
coming back to the cabin
he ran into a female bull snake
which he also escorted
to the back of the woods
when caught they play dead
if you get too close
they hiss at you
they are feisty

Aunt Wilma

when aunt Wilma was
ten years old
she could walk under
the kitchen table
we were told it was because
she had some bone disease
Grandmother Spengler gave birth
twelve times nine survived
all born on their farm
in Northern Ohio
later Wilma moved to the upstairs
of a house in Elmira Ohio
Grandfather Spengler built
when they left the farm
my mother was her sister
my two older sisters Nedra and Janice
and mom and I helped Aunt Wilma clean
her rooms in the house
my mom would carry her full slop jar
down the long stairway
to the outhouse and dump it
us kids would work the pink stuff
like silly putty in our hands to warm it
make a ball of it and rub it over
the wallpaper to clean it
Wilma moved to an old folks home
and is buried at a place called Lauber Hill
near the farm where she was born

ode to darkness

fabled shades of dawn
cover the darkness
so deep when it was
so content to be
not alone but full
of shinny lights
that roam the sky
telling their story
before the sun
pushes up
another dawn