The NOISE is so loud, that I can barely concentrate on the CHART I am working on. The sound is odd, almost WACKY in its strident, unearthly quality. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that the new neighbors own a MACAW!

Georg’ann

Our neighborhood basketball COURT
is an often empty SPACE
more for solo hoop shooting
than boisterous competition.
Surrounded by LILAC bushes
it’s the perfect retreat
for meditative motion.

An occasional encounter
with that celebrity poet
or the man who comes
with his MACAW on a perch.
This is a place fitting to begin,
at 57, learning the skills
my father wanted me to know
when I visited that summer.
Both of us crestfallen
at my inadequacy.

Heather