Inca terns being silly

These terns apparently do this a lot--did NOT seem to have hanky-panky in mind...(I WAS watching for a long time!)

hang the moon

you don't have to tell

were you ever full
as that
crescent moon

on the horizon

don't explain
the dark
inside you

you don't have to tell

were you ever heavy
with light

did your smile melt
the edge of dawn

you don't have to tell
but your cells
remember

when you knew
you were loved

and you were that slice of fire

a study in tones, textures, and tails

Ringtailed lemurs, that is...I'm not quite sure how many are in this photo!

eden's rain

forgive me
for running out
to meet the thunder

forgive me for thinking
that lightning burned brighter

than anything
in your garden

where even my fingertips
could drink the dew

so soft was I

forgive me for asking, now
but didn't you love, sometime
this blackened world

where wild-eyed creatures
race down cliffs
to flee the flames

and didn't you
hold forgiveness in your hands
when you shaped my bones

and you, I know it is you
who listens
still

to Eden's small rain
running in my veins

odometer 8 ones

This really was my car odometer -- a magical sight that I don't expect to see again in a lifetime! (Kind of like an total eclipse, no?)

mossy stones

asteroid

space
is a wonderful place
for a rock

Lo! see me stretch out
my volcanic heart
till my craters
smile

whether you watch
or not

while
I ponder gravity
atmosphere, and rain

those oscillating oceans
that overwhelm the brain

slime
and such bizarrities
as finite time

Ha! I am too dry
to cry

I am rock

remembering when
there was fragrant flesh
surrounding my body

and I was the dense center
crouching

knowing somehow that I would live
and live, and outlive
the soft substance
melting, so fresh
peeling away

It was you, wasn't it
who loved apricots

and I
who discovered

space
a wonderful place
for a rock

Red Panda--the cutest animal in the world

I finally got some photos of the rare Red Panda--the zookeepers had to wake her up to put her inside for the night...you can't see in these photos, but there was quite a battle of wills! --And a big bag of treats to get her off her perch. (This is all the same individual, funny how the pictures look so different)
--click on the photos to get a close-up view!

crane

This one is much too exotic to live in my neighborhood...unless it's in the zoo, of course!

the time of listening

whatever bird you are
whose wings whisper
like ships leaving the shore

whatever bird you are
who waits until my heart
is a desert sky

to fly
whose color is the still wind
before it turns away

whose song
is the air darkening

who moves inside me
always
at twilight

whatever bird you are