Storm Warnings

Over the wires

Balcony cleared

    ~~~

Clouds gather 

Yellow sky 

Air smells of rain

   ~~~

Energy tightens

My body thrills

“Then the storm broke, and the dragons danced.”

~ George R.R. Martin, “Fire & Blood”

A Yellow Fire Hydrant

I didn’t notice the exact date or year that fire hydrants turned 

yellow from red. 

Nothing that drew my attention when 

kids needed to get to baseball, 

or the groceries needed putting away, 

or bills were stacking up or work schedules interfered with street life.

One evening, 

I sat across from this stolid guy, 

his paint crumbling, 

marked up around the top.

Time to ponder this deep question.

It’s been since the 1950’s! 

At home, I looked it up.

Why? 

A perennial question for a child; 

a question I keep for such occasions

No answer was forthcoming, 

it just squatted there, 

little arms awaiting fire hoses.

Again, at home I looked it up.

Yellow is more visible to fire fighters than red!

Simple, logical and now I can rest my tired brain. 

“A fire hydrant is not something you 

want to lose, especially in an emergency.”

~ Shannon Wiersbitzky, What Flowers Remember

Robin Red Breast

It was still early evening 

the sky clear and blue 

a robin landed high in the tree

hopped branch to branch 

settling in the centre of the tree. 

Trying to hurry and be still 

I willed this bird of spring 

to sit still while branches waved. 

Birds, animals and little children 

do not settle in one spot too long 

so regardless of fading light 

I clicked the button on my phone, 

His red breast, hidden in the poor light 

only showed off in black and white.

“Color is descriptive. Black and white is interpretive.”

~ Elliot Erwitt, documentary photographer

(1928 ~ 2023)