WAITING FOR WINTER
Basking in the sunlight to shed
the cold night’s stupor, grasshoppers
rest on dried grasses.
Bees hunt autumn aster
and Russian olive for fall’s
diminishing nectar.
In prairies, pot-holed
breeding grounds hide invading
chemicals in clear water.
The juvenile Marbled Godwit
migrates east, pausing
at man-made tidal pools.
Born with snarled beak,
it cannot probe the sand for food.
The bees hoard honey
to survive the frosts,
grasshopper eggs overwinter
in leaf mulch. Both prepare
for the next generation.
