Wildlife Photography
Flies that had crawled day after day
in threes and fours
on the inside of
kitchen window panes,
fat black bodies I had
carefully captured with a cup
and a piece of paperboard and
thrown outside
are gone today.
Odd that I'm not rejoicing.
I grab my phone and cap,
slide into sandals and go
search for them in the garden.
Not here either.
Mosquitoes would do, but
they haven't found me,
now that I want them.
Here among the vegetable beds,
where they usually attack me,
I see none.
But morning glory seedlings are
coming up in the walkway
and here's a dandelion sprout
too close to the
chamomile.
I pull them out, toss
them out to dry.
Now, a mosquito zip dances
in my body heat
around my long pants,
long sleeves.
I sit and pull up a pant leg
to make myself bait.
Odd thing for me to do.
Unsuccessful.
Mosquitos are too tiny to
photograph well anyway.
That's a tiny bee
hovering at the honeysuckle.
Doesn't fit the description.
A spider crawls down the fence.
Definitely not a pest. It eats pests.
Wasps jet off
over the quince bush,
maybe the ones who've been
crawling into the hollows of the
bamboo wind chimes on the
balcony.
Would that show up in a photo?
And is a wasp a pest?
Distracted by counting new
asparagus spears I
stand still
and there they are,
dark circling.
Two, three, alighting,
green shine and white gauze
on the long wide runways of
rhubarb leaves,
then gone.
Okay, max zoom,
sit on the edge of the raised bed,
lift the phone, click, and
scare them away.
Image out of focus.
I must sit still
and wait,
wait
in readiness.
Odd that I'm able to do this thing
that's possessing me, stopping me,
that I've failed at in
meditation.
Here they are again,
pausing, at ease, taking
their time.
Slowly, silently I raise my phone,
capture these two in the grid,
touch the shutter.
One flies off.
Touch the shutter.
The other flies off.
Check images:
confused, fuzzy.
But now I have my
technique,
my Plan for Action,
which is no action at all
until the moment arrives
to tap the white circle
that grants me
the image I desire.
The next-to-last frame
is the best.
Spread two fingers over
the screen, and
Yes!
see sharp focus.
Wings and black legs on the
curve of green.
And notice
bulbous eyes
are red!
Odd that I never saw
that before.