Walter Feller

Thin Window

Through the thin window, I watch the torn-away sky

clouds shredded and stolen as sharpened winds howl by

Spinning wildflowers and tumbling weeds

frantically, frantically spreading their seeds

Two birds in a bush warbling in trills and quavers

it is the lopsided melody the garbled song favors

Trade rats somersaulting across the bare ground

cartwheeling badgers angrily claw as they wheel round and round

Stiff-legged coyotes hobnobbing in play

catching jackrabbits and cottontails that can only jump up, not away

and dust swirls into dust devils then dispersed above

All of this, all of this, lonely, barren, wind-scarred, and loved.