PORCH TUNE
© Cynthia Hilts 1998

Sitting on the porch
Sunbaked gray planks
Life's glowing 'round here like a torch
And I'm giving thanks

Birds zip into their raftered nests
Baby birds need ladybugs and all kindsa crunchy insects
Grass so thick a cat can belly in it up to his face
Birds divebomb those pouncers just to keep 'em in their place

Hot day tree-cotton dances and zooms
Like little-little girl-girls in the softest tutus
Something for them to float on is this
Fat summer air
It's thick with something like twenty different colors
From here to that pine-locked mountain over there

Lilac underneath aqua-green
Maizegold, grayred and violet
What color sings the loudest
Depends on how far or near you get
Oo, aqua-green singing
Grayred ringing low
Lilac keeps the chants
And maizegold makes you want to dance
Maizegold makes you want to dance

A lanky brown mosquito took a red sip from my thigh
As the sun set yesterday
One last scarlet drop
Before he crossed
The sweeping swallow's hungry evening way
Someone ate a bird today in the garden at dawn
The last little lost feather found a kind iris stalk to lean on

Red sip and a grey feather
Nature strikes in the finest weather
Iris stalks and sweeping swallows
Danger strikes and living beauty follows