Late Summer

At the flashy red feeder brimming with a home-made brew,

tiny hummingbirds fight furiously for their sugar fix.

Lanky, great blue herons wade languidly

under shady shrubs overhanging the cloud-reflecting pond.

Two harriers, a nesting couple, thread their swoops

through branches thickly laden with greenery

and have culled both bunnies and chipmunks

from the neighborhood lawns.

Deer graze perilously close to the back-filled

edge of the hill where the weeds are a more delectable

spring-green, blanched by shadows.

And breaking evening's silence,

all night, every night.

turkeys perched in the pines call to each other,

unwilling to turn out the light

of summer's sultry moon.