more yellow birds...

this afternoon outside the kitchen window where i've let the accidental fennel reach ten feet, scores of tiny yellow-grey birds deviled the thing, grooming each umbel. i think they eat aphids (yay!). watching them is like watching the light on the wall in evening. it shines through the tree and every time the tree blows, every santa ana gust makes the light kaleidoscope. hypnotic. the little yellow-greys kaleidoscope. the fennel leaves are still grey-green, but the umbels, plim-seeded, are golden and sour green. the jaw twinges, the tongue waters just from looking.  i almost fell asleep sitting backwards on the small couch below the window, arms folded across the back, staring at them. the sunlight was thick like tinned peach syrup, heavy, drowsy, and the sky very blue, very clean--- this is august.

i lurve hyphens. oh yes.