Last year I wrote a poem about the wildlife I've seen on rides. Every so once in a while, I add something new to the poem, so it really is a work in progress.

Saxa82

The Flora and the Fauna

On my many rides I see
the flora and the fauna all around.
The coyote crosses my path,
I startle the bear in his wood,
I eat the gnats.
Orioles and scarlet tanagers flash
their brilliance, goldfinches flit about.
Caterpillars dot the road,
in a month, I blink away
the moths they’ve become.
Above, there’s a hawk screaming
its authority, snake in its talons.
A fox flies by, golden glimmer of a tail.
A mink slinks across the road,
I spy a heron silently fishing.
The garter snake winds its way
across the road, nearly flattened by my wheel.
A blizzard of mountain laurel blinds me.
Soon, their petals will look like
old tissue paper, tea brown and wrinkled.
Native rhododendron unfurl their flags
just in time for the Fourth of July.

What am I in this landscape
but a smudge against a blue background?