Steamy haze rises sluggishly from pond;
great blue heron stalks minnows in shallows.
Doe marks her passage with broken fern frond;
forest verge gleams with berries and mallows.
Celandine adorns an old cellar wall.
Oriole alights on a moss-decked branch
of weeping willow whose limbs gently fall.
Hummingbird wings so fast, no eye can match.
Wood sorrel and plantain and white clover
dapple open meadows and ruin lawns —
vanguards of encroaching forest cover,
viburnum and wild mint are mere pawns.
Soil receives both milkweed and yarrow,
cocooning monarch and feeding sparrow.

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