Hummingbirds
The cicadas hum,
the rasp of their voices
echoed by their kin.
Insistent and loud.
The hummingbirds dive and chase,
sometimes for romance,
sometimes for food,
sometimes for blood,
sometimes to feel the air fly through their feathers.
Their wings hum, insistent and loud.
A mother lands on an empty feeder.
It sticks a beak into the nozzle fruitlessly.
Angry, it buzzes my face,
staring me in the eyes,
insistent and loud.
A full feeder sits not more than five feet away.
The hungry hummingbirds buzz around it,
never landing,
never eating.
Instead, they fight over empty vessels,
the comfort of regularity.
They chirp at each other.
At me.
Insistent and loud.
Diamondback Water Snake
We flip the boat.
There are snakes wriggling in the grass.
One emerges.
It seeks cover immediately,
and is blocked by a swift boat paddle.
It lashes out,
blindly,
angrily,
seeking its oppressor.
Most would assume
it is a water moccasin,
but they would be wrong.
It is harmless.
The paddle flips the snake
out towards the lake.
It doesn't have the eyes of a killer.
With one last strike into empty air,
the diamondback water snake
shuffles out of view.
Temporary Craters
The hook catches.
He reels in a fish,
which struggles in vain.
A perch falls out of its mouth.
The hook lay deep in the gullet.
Hauled out of the water,
gasping for air,
the fish writhes
as thin plastic pliers
reach in
and gently remove the hook.
It may survive.
As the sun fades,
the lake reflects orange
giving way to blue
giving way to black.
Air bubbles pop on the surface,
temporary craters on an alien land.
Weaver
Flies buzz through the night air,
avoiding the moths which
slowly but surely
congregate towards the light.
The beat of tiny wings
fills the night air with ambient hum,
drowned out by the calls of crickets.
A spider dangles off a cedar,
slowly but surely
making its way towards the ground.
It clambers
across the gravel path
towards the tree on the other side,
and ascends
to the thick layer of branches and leaves forming a small canopy.
The silk is drawn tight,
crossing the empty space between the cedars,
a single cable the only safety
from a twenty-foot plunge.
The weaver makes towards the center,
and begins to create.
Concentric circles takes shape,
slowly but surely
forming an intricate geometric web.
Completed,
contented,
the weaver makes towards the center
once again.
The moth barely registers its peril
until it is too late.
The weaver
slowly but surely
advances towards its next meal.
Abuse
Get angry!
Curse the world
For not bending to your whims
For existing outside your will.
Get violent!
Your needs are unsatisfied
Your desire requires sacrifice
A blood debt, paid in pleasure
Get power!
Through your superior intellect
You seek influence beyond the personal
A bone-deep control without escape.
Get manipulative!
All others are animals
Unthinking, and unfeeling, cattle
Vulnerable to your keen machinations
Get yours! You are the only real person
Yours are the only real friendships
You are the only person worth knowing.
Get out!
Get dumped!
Get fucked!
Rejection
It is with great
Sadness
That we inform you
That we have decided
That we prefer another
For this role
We didn't talk to you
We didn't see your face
We didn't read your work
We just know
That our choice
Is perfect
We will retain your resume
For six months
Just in case
There is another position
We won't consider you for
Please feel free to contact us again
If you see an opening you like
So we can ignore you again
Best of luck
In your search
For a company that won't treat you like this
The Rabbit
A cool breeze washes through the island of green.
An overcast sky dulls the sun,
shading the people of the city below.
In the distance,
the shriek and clang of metal reverberates.
Nobody notices,
nobody cares.
Sometimes,
when it is quiet
and the park has less people sitting,
standing,
talking,
walking,
a small rabbit bounds reluctantly onto the grass.
It sniffs air full of exhaust fumes and whispered promises.
Everyone here is so ecologically conscious.
They compost their kale salads,
take in the beauty of an isolated nature
hemmed in on all sides
by gravel
and steel
and concrete
and glass.
The rabbit nibbles on a green morsel
before returning to the brush,
slipping through the branches
to a warren full of kin.
One by one,
over the course of the day,
each sees the outside world,
tastes the pace of modern humanity,
and returns.
There are no immediate natural dangers here.
A meandering descent into old age the only threat,
both rabbit
and human
ignore the artificial cage,
content to die slowly.