June 2022
Bio Note: My father was always a keen observer and lover of all kinds of life…I hope I received some of his eyes wide open genes. I do know I have become a total bird geek. My new book, Once Upon a Tar Creek: Mining for Voices came out this past year and is about an environmental disaster in Oklahoma. The water is orange and lead toxic.
Questions for the Garter Snake In My Backyard
Out behind the lavender patch
a snake skin slowly
slides into invisible
while the Queen Bee hums
her wings in and out of blossoms
that tower above dirt
cradling someone’s old life
soon I won’t even recognize
evidence of an existence
now transformed
Does the bee know
where your new self prowls?
do you still smell lavender
wherever you have gone?
is it possible to let go
of everything you have ever known
and swing your hips
to new tunes?
Will I know you?
Weeds
He is growing like a weed. I love weeds.
— T K
too much pain
when her son left too early
but now the son
of her son
sprouts bigger and bigger
in glorious grandeur
almost like dandelions
the way they break
through concrete
and now the way her heart
feels the sun—
cracks wide open
over and again
for my father it was
a moral issue
this waking
just as the sun peeks
its way into day
seems he and the birds
had a pact
they would warble out tunes
he would savor each note
both knowing life
too fragile
to slip by without celebration
or notice
©2022 Maryann Hurtt
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