The woodpeckers going at the palm trees
outside my window wake me today.
Someone told me that palms aren’t
true trees, but I don’t think the birds care.
Down the road, someone’s cache of fireworks
explodes all at once, killing some people,
taking out his house, sending the fire trucks
screaming down the road. The neighbors gather
outside to watch the smoke plume over the city.
The woodpeckers don’t seem to notice at all.
Cache
John Brantingham was Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks’ first poet laureate. His work has been featured in hundreds of magazines. He has nineteen books of poetry and fiction including his latest, Life: Orange to Pear (Bamboo Dart Press). He lives in Jamestown, New York.