I can’t remember the last time I wrote a poem. It was surely part of an exercise at school. What I am really trying to say is that I don’t think I have ever written a poem voluntarily.

So, here we are. My first poem that was not written under duress:

Red Eyed Dove

You made

too much noise

and I didn’t want you to wake my family

so I opened the slatted window

to scare you off

but you were two

and you left in different directions

and you took longer because your wing was stuck

and I wonder if you knew where you were going

or how to find each other again?

And then you were gone

like a dream

slipping through the cracks

upon waking.

———-

I have been drawing pied kingfishers recently. A lot of them. The drawings are not necessarily progressing in terms of becoming more accurate representations of pied kingfishers, but I am really enjoying the practice.

Did you know that pied kingfishers are the largest hovering bird in the world?

A doodle

All the hovering is a massive energy expenditure. Pied kingfishers need to eat a LOT of fish.

Yellow crayon and my daughter’s black acrylic paint. I was trying to make the pied kingfisher look mysterious, but he looks downright diabolical.

This is my son’s work. He doesn’t yet know that I have an issue with pelicans and he ended up doing a whole school project on the freeaking things. He is a pelican expert!!! My own flesh and blood!!! Anyway, there are some tough conversations that can wait.

This was a collaboration between my daughter and I. I really like how it turned out.

Greetings from the Petite-Cote of Senegal.

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