Backyard Sketch

By Richard Carl Mather

in our backyard

conifer, rosemary, lavender too

grass is long green slippery wet

four flower pots overturned

roots exposed

three snails doing nothing on a spade

laid to rest

at my feet a coiled strimmer cable

the air is raspberry sweet

it swarms with wings

the sun is out & a warbler sings

for the seeds the wind

brings to his table

from out a bed of bark crawls a spider

to climb the garden wall

pausing now & then

as raindrops fall from a line of clothes

onto stone made dark

by this morning's violent downpour