Defiant blossoms

leaves are down
cones are down
petals are down
berries are down
dusty millers hang in
last of the garden champs

The sound of sleet

On the roof
Skittering shingles...
Tink tink
Tinka tinka
Tink tinka
Tink tink

Spray it

Sometimes the first snowfall of the year

Isn't light and fluffy like candy floss

Or cotton wool

Sometimes it's wet and clumpy

Like old school Make It Snow
The kind in the can that you
(Or more likely your parents)
Would spray on the artificial Christmas Tree
Which was pretty similar conceptually
To aerosol cheese
(At least as I imagine it to be)
That's us today:
Slathered in a sheen of mozzarella
The airborne kind

Arach Knees

All in good time
All will be revealed
Like some traveling conjurer
A magician at a kiddie's birthday party
Only this time it's a tropical spider
A wandering Brazilian among a bunch of bananas
Instead of a rabbit out of a hat
(Same old, same old)
The wandering Brazilian tearing off one of its own legs
When cornered
What we've come to expect
To demand
A little more drama in the diorama
A little more bang for our buck
Our dineros
And just so you know
Here, north of the 49th we call them 'loonies'
In honour of the birds that grace the tail side
The tailored pursuits
Diving down
Fists of cash
Fits of crazy
Delirium and the wandering Brazilian
Likely just looking for home

The Masked Bandit

Dennis Dennis The Raccoon
On the lam from Saskatoon
Nestled up with the Hooks
On the end of knowing looks
He might have a worm or two
That's just what critters do
Lay off and let'em be
Little happy family

Polar kinder

Thanksgiving is about many things
Time to recall the past
Anticipate the future
And be mindful of the present
To connect with family and dress up a little
To eat too much
And at the end of the meal to unwrap kinder eggs
Mine this year contained a small white
Ursus Maritimus
Timely and thankfully easy to assemble
Part of the Natoons series
Featuring penguins, moose, wolves, walruses, seals, huskies
And maybe an otter (not sure)
As I struggle with how to say and what to say about all that is melting
My little plastic polar bear waits patiently on top of the thermal coffee urn
Wondering what's coming
When the ice will return
And when help will arrive
And in case we don't remember
Polar bears don't drink Coke
Or coffee

Threading

Between the African violet
And the empty pickle jar
Is a cake plate beneath the overhanging cupboard
Connected by a spider skein illuminated in sunlight

Octopi
Occupy
All those limbs in action
I like to think of the spiders hunkering down
Getting busy with all of the work
Yet to be done
Yet to be spun