
I left seed for you.
A pomegranate too.
Would you come
Christmas day?
The veil was thin
last night.
This morning
Madonna’ s
Feathered Body
Spoke.
When you ran across
the snow
I remembered
the song
from long ago…
Partridge in a Pear Tree.
Twelve days
begun in earnest conversation
bridging difference
in Love.
Ever widening circles…
Soul, spirit and body
entwine underground,
weaving many
into One.
Mother Root
Father Root.
And then,
You were Three!
Postscript: I have Ruffed grouse who live around the house. Sometimes a week goes by and I don’t see one, and I fear they have left me, but lately I have been flushing them in the woods, or have followed three towed hieroglyphics in the snow. Occasionally I have a momentary glimpse. Just to know they are here is enough.
Last fall I found a dead grouse on the road, held him tenderly, cut mole brown and black striped tail feathers and his shining henna ruff into a fan, knowing the ‘crown’ would grace my Norfolk pine when November came around…

BIO Sara is a naturalist, ethologist ( a person who studies animals in their natural habitats) (former) Jungian Pattern Analyst, and a writer. She publishes her work regularly in a number of different venues and is presently living in Maine.
A beautiful poem and a beautiful grouse! I especially loved how you know they have been near you by the “hieroglyphics in the snow.” I don’t often see wild creatures in my back garden but I love to go out there after a snow and see all the footprints left by both birds and animals showing that they are there. It makes me think about those of us who live in suburban or urban built environments believing that the landscape is human-made when really we only live on a small portion of it on the surface and a few building stories above – the vast underground and the skies above belong to wild creatures. And that wild creatures are in the part of the environment we inhabit much more than we know. Yesterday I almost encountered a moose on my walk around the suburban sidewalks (I only knew one had been on my route when I saw local social media posts with photos of sightings later).
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I’m so glad you liked it….. I see less and less wild creatures each year – same with birds so I am particularly grateful for the grouse – we have had bitter cold so I am not able to see tracks – thanks Carolyn
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By the way Carolyn I deeply appreciate the depth and breadth of your generous spirited posts – I keep forgetting to mention this
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Beautiful reminder of the beauty all around us. Thanks
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