Bats, some people think, are kind of creepy. Little squeaky mice with wings webbed like duck feet.
Maybe rabid. Maybe related to vampires. Most certainly unwelcome if swooping through your bedroom late at night.

But in reality? THEY ARE COOL.
And in Austin, where I live, they are an institution.

A million and a half of them — all babies and mamas — spend 6 months under the Congress Avenue bridge, fly out in dark, pretty, undulating waves every night, hungry for insects. Which is good news for those of us with sweet blood. It’s like the opposite of being bit by a vampire, really.

Bats. They get a bad rap.

Hundreds of people
A million and a half bats
Gather on one bridge

There is something about the ever-changing yet ever-constant phenomenon of sunrises and sunsets that brings out the reflective in us. The thoughtful. The meditative. The fully present and aware and alive.

Each morning, a fresh start. Each evening, closure. That’s all we have…

The sky goes rosy,
lit up from the inside out.
I step into it.

Somehow ego is funnier and less problematic in birds than it is people, don’t you think?
Here’s who we appreciated on our walk in Mayfield Park this morning.
I thought you’d like to see him too…

How ostentatious!
Some people are such show offs,
but can you blame them?

Yes. Another poem about my favorite subject.
Sometimes I really do think all of the world’s best qualities show up in a good dog.
They are so loving and full of joy, so loyal, so tender and humane.

It’s good to stop here,
breathe, reflect, appreciate.
Then? A flying leap!

My mom and dad are visiting from up north where their spring has barely started.
Ours, here, is coming to an end. But today, on Earth Day, we all met here.
In the sunshine. In front of this wild prettiness….

Passion flower blooms —
a star, a firecracker!
Today is Earth Day!

I love how rain turns more arid landscapes into something other worldly. It’s a different experience than watching the work rain does greening up the grass and the trees. This is something more unlikely than that, more transporting. More surprising.

Each moony crater
filling up clear water
that doesn’t belong

So, you all know that old yarn about writing being a lonely endeavour? What with the hours under dim lights in the stone cold silence and everything? Well. One way to assuage the loneliness a bit, every so often, is to collaborate. I’ve been lucky enough to do that with my very brilliant pal Audrey Vernick on two picture books and honestly, we almost felt guilty calling the whole thing work because it was so much fun.

And then Audrey, who is an over-achiever, went off and did the same thing with another friend (the amazing Olugbemisola Amusashonubi-Perkovich) with a novel — which, it might be obvious to most, is a lot longer than a picture book! They each took a character and alternated chapters and — voila — Two Naomis!

You all, I’m hear to tell you, they did it right. It’s a sweet, tender story about blending a family — told from the points-of-view of two ten-year-old girls named…. yes, you guessed it… Naomi! Both of them! Whether they like it or not! It will be out later this summer so yay! Lucky world!

Two friends wrote one book
about turning two families
into one sweet thing

And speaking of weather…

Like a slice of cake
when you’re not expecting one —
a rainbow arrives!

Weather is such a big deal, isn’t it? I mean, unless you’re living in an underground bunker like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt or something. But for the rest of us, it sets up our days to unroll in certain ways. It affects our activities and our moods. It is both the backdrop and the overlay to what we think and feel and do.

And sometimes in Texas, as you’ve likely read about in the news, we do weather in a very big way.

On certain gray days
passing trains sound lonelier
and the ground gives in

My youngest daughter really likes to cook. Like, you know how all kids like to bake? Cookies? Well, she likes to do that but she’ll go for the full meal deal. Curries. Fish. All variety of things out of fancy cooking magazines. She has had to throw full meals away and she shrugs and moves on. It’s pretty impressive.

Here’s tonight’s meal (not complete — in progress) and tonight’s haiku:

When kids learn to cook
there is the delicious thrill.
And there’s the clean up.