December 1st: Somthing To Do While Waiting For Christmas

The Christmas Tree, Dog and Skunk Tale

An oft told treasured tale of frivolity and foolishness!

Behold the Juniper

December first we went to the farm

for our Christmas tree, our land, our farm

our tree, any one we want for free.

Prickly stickley juniper stuck in sandstone

grown up between the cracks for years, ages, eons.

There’s a chop, a crack, a saw

the sharp sent of juniper is ours

selfishly

we gather its life for home and hearth.

For our nest a bird’s nest

grey withered and abandoned then

sparkled, speckled, false feathered birds adorned

branches profuse and admired. Granted

a pleasure to remember.

Because once long ago we stood to behold the juniper

now it is held dear by the landscape of time.

Things simple and ordinary now treasures

piquant prickly dust out of sandstone

pink and tan from running under the sun

where I once stood by the pound

today grateful its light traveled so far in my mind.

A mundane thing

that day our dog, Peppy, chased a skunk

‘nuff said 80 miles from home a storm coming

tomato soup, bleach, Tide Soap

a toss in the pond crackling with ice no use.

I still had to ride in the back seat with a skunked dog

but there was a bird’s nest tree

on the roof of the ’56 Hudson Jet.

© 12-1-12 Carol Carlisle