CHILLY

The sun was such a tease

hanging just below the horizon

like it might decide to not come up this morning.

Regardless of that decision,  the trail brightened the longer I walked,

my hands pulled into my sleeves,

my shoes crunching on iced gravel

following coyote tracks that veered off towards back yards

where Charlotte, Sue’s sweet cockapoo, and four chickens live.

They forecast snow today.  Without clouds?

Prepare for cold and damp.  With these rapidly bluing skies?

That blasted woodpecker annoyingly yaks from atop next door’s tallest willow.

Fat robins pull and pick apart fat worms.

My favorite mourning dove stares me down above the empty feeder,

and North Korea held its largest missile test yet last night.

4/26/17