Dayle Olson
When you get right down to it,
it’s all beautiful.
The crow flapping past on ragged wings,
the half-fallen fruit tree,
the clouds, gunmetal gray and titanium white,
the exposed marshland
made naked by an over-filled moon.
The delicate window insect,
the flute of a redwing blackbird,
the weathered grain of the window frame
where the Willapa wind
has eaten the paint.
The eagle sailing over glistening mud,
the bird box where lawn meets sedge, waiting
for swallows to return,
the rhododendron, folded tight,
bracing for more winter.
A hawk, maybe a Northern Harrier, patrolling
the brown, salty grass.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something.
Dayle Olson‘s poetry is published in Salal Review, Haunted Words Press, Timber Ghost Press, RAIN Magazine, North Coast Squid Magazine, Dirigible Balloon, and Humanities Washington Poetic Routes. She currently has a short story published in Litmora Magazine.
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