two news stories yesterday
about no-mow May
Reporters interview environmentalists
and one practical John Deere repairman
who warns that by June
grass will be too tall to mow at all
What then? Wide swaths of lawn
become field, become meadow.
The honeybees are picketing
in front of all the tractor and
mower stores, marching
up and down in front of
every lawn care business
Buzzing with hope.
One old farmer remembers decades of
spring plowing, the gorgeous smell,
the startled worms, the luxurious deep brown
color like the pelt of some soft hidden animal.
But that was long ago
before the farmer fell under the spell
of the bees. Now he only listens and nods
through May, hums along with the yellow blare of
dandelions and the happy plotting of pollinators
Puff Of Smoke Poems 