sunday's count

Yesterday afternoon, between one rain storm and the next, I walked along the street, my eyes on the blue and vivid white clouds, occasionally looking down to admire the moss, in at least three shades (or is that species) on the rough bark of the elm trees.  A flash caught my eye.  I paused, stepped cautiously back.  There, poking for whatever it was she found tasty, was a brown woodpecker looking bird with a red thatch on her head.  She flew down to the sidewalk beyond me, and then a lawn.  There she was joined by first one, then another gangley, floppy, soft youth of herself.  She would hop several yards, like a rabbit. They would fly to her position then plop on the grass.  We held in this moment for several minutes, me in the shade of the tree, them in the bright sunlight of the grass, time blossoming outward, until a jogger interrupted us and they three flew away around a house corner, out of sight.