Thursday, January 15, 2015

New Jersey Nostalgia



Mourning doves
ooAAH coo cooo coo
as kosher Dunkin’ Donuts bake
sending  sweet clouds to dust dawn
over the Raritan’s Albany Street Bridge

Above rowhouse rooftops, cedar waxwings lisp 
fruity trills, svelte banditos take communion 
holding rosy red berries in their beaks and bellies
exchanging pleasantries between Highland Park
neighbors, a polite migrating masquerade

Roosevelt roosters gargoyle 
on the water tower, a large Lego on stilts
below, elementary school children
hopscotch, tag you’re it
skulking raptors lick their lips

Bauhous bowers cuddle up to Assunpink’s bog
where a white-throated sparrow
Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody
serenades as Torahs unfurl trusting daylight
Largo al factotum, little bird Figaros

Pine Barrens hushed
in secrets they’ll never tell
a heedless nuthatch mouses
downside up squeaking
like a rubber ducky

A silent skein of geese glides over cars
without honking heading home at dusk
shadows lengthen, fiddler crabs pull sandy blankets
over their heads in a cozy shush
as moonlight flickers over Barnegat Bay

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