Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the Colonial Office

                                    The October Squirrel Festival

                              For Jerry Nobles, of Happy Memory
                              Our Town Pharmacist and a Joyful Friend

Squirrels!

They’re up the trees; they’re down the trees
They swarm each other just like bees
They’re up the oak; they’re down the pine
They really need a traffic fine

Dachshunds!

Our outraged pups – they yap and bark
While chasing squirrels all over the park
Dachshunds are usual merry and curious
But with squirrels they are fast and furious

But not fast enough

Cats!

Tuxedo-Cat, all proper and prim
Disapproves of the others with a face all grim

young squirrels run on
spring grass fast just new life joy
exhilaration

the squirrels running
on fallen leaves make pathways
into the future

i don't see tonight
october moon dark sky
squirrells run rampant

The eyes were still open
On the still life.
There's the difference
Between crossing the road
And dying in your sleep.
So, look both ways
Before crossing me.

Home heaven halo
a squirrel peeks through the hole
the Acorn stairway

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                               Squirrels Without End, Amen

Whenever I take my book to the front-yard oak
The squirrel stretched from the feeder to the trunk
Flees in a seed-strewn panic across the lawn
To a farther tree, free of human menace

This is a young squirrel; its predecessor
Arched from feeder to trunk in exactly the same way
But held its ground, or, rather, its rough old tree
And chittered defiance in contempt of me

By summer’s end this squirrel too will stare me down -
I wonder what Pasternak wrote about squirrels

i don't see tonight
october moon in dark sky
squirrels run rampant

Sent for our amusement, pleasuring admiration,
our funny bones, and galore (glory)  of creation,
Texas squirrels are nuts, like crazy,chasing each other ,
up trees, across the wide expanse of the backyard,
where’s the Davy Crockett sharpshooters when
you really need them? (1)

now that baby rabbit, fearless or stupid, insists on
running on our deck, looking for applause for his skinny
legs hopping neath the chaise lounges, at any ole time,
guess this ain’t the love poem you were expecting,
then again you’d be wrong again and agin, but the
grandkids going, going, gone and applause muted

anyway, one of these days gonna stop and chat with
these two species, what they’re thinking about, the
human menagerie,  its depleted numbers, wherefore
and why, did the reduction of the human stockyard,
emboldened them to occupy territory they’d otherwise
shy away, hear what they say, gonna make a good poem

p.s. the avians yap and caw 24 hrs a day, presumptuous beasties noisy
__________________­_

(1) “In fact there wouldn't be a Texas if it weren't for squirrel stew. Don't condemn the idea of stewing your squirrel problems away. That's right! Davy Crockett and his Tennessee sharpshooters wouldn't have reached puberty if it were not for squirrel stew. Besides, what do you think they ate on the long trip from Tennessee to the Alamo? Enchiladas? Nope! You guessed it--squirrel stew.”

https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/recipes/squirrel.html

Rocky squirrel flew through the air
Safely landing precisely where
He wished.

Caught glimpse as Shirley squirrel
(Herself in front of car did hurl)
Was nearly squished.

Rocky had warned Shirley before
Admonition Shirley chose to ignore-
Cars can smite

Such events reveal it's not merely heuristic
Fatalities by car is greater statistic
Than fatalities by flight