Yellow River

Gabcast! Dancing With Daisy #40 - Yellow River

Click the play button above to hear me read this poem.

Yellow River

Leaves rained down for days
until the front yard was flooded
drenched in color by a yellow river
from the thunder cloud trees above

With each gust of wind
more leaves lapped at the edges
of the flower beds and porch steps
Frothy yellow waves billowed about

Squirrels and little dogs
first waded and then swam across it
struggling not to drown
not to be pulled under in the eddying swirls

A rake parted the river
like the raised rod of Moses
channeling the leaves
down to the street

The curbs of the street,
breaker walls,
strain now to hold back the leaves

The wind persists
sending them back
in yellow waves
over the top
over the top
over the top
of the too small concrete dam

We've Been Hit!!

I was up early today to get ready to go to work, and as usual, I opened the door to let the dog out. This is the sight that greeted me out the front door.

Toilet paper and orange and black streamers hung from the trees out front. Happy Halloween from some of the neighborhood tricksters!

I called out to my son in the other room, "We've been hit!"

My son came outside to investigate and declared it the job of "rank amateurs." Not enough toilet paper was used, and it wasn't thrown up nearly high enough in the trees was his judgment. You can see some of the black streamers in the photo below.

Here you can see one of the orange streamers hanging down.


My son got busy and had it all cleaned up in about five minutes. He found out later in the day which of his friends had decided to decorate our yard for the Halloween season, and they had a good laugh together over it. Having your yard toilet papered is a sign that you are liked and have friends around here. Although it is more common to happen around Halloween, it takes place year round in this town. We had a good laugh over the morning greeting.

Oh, and about those leaves in the yard from yesterday's post. They are all raked down into the gutter of the street in front of our house, as you can see in the photo below, and ready for the city workers to come and sweep them up. Well, they are all raked until more fall from the trees. But for now, for today, they are done.