New art offers unique perspective on ‘Musings’ battle’
Missouri Life magazine readers will recognize the image below, but the new spin—a blackout poem based on the article “The Battle of the Backyard,” by Missouri Life columnist Ron Marr—gives the article unique perspective. The article appeared in the June 2022 issue of Missouri Life.
See the accompanying image of Ron’s column to see how writer Mary Schanuel of Wentzville created this blackout poem.
My Annual Descent
into the arcane worlds of
weeds, ticks, fleas,
saplings, snakes and ants.
My best response
until first frost:
Go down without a fight.
My primary battleground:
semi-abandoned ponds,
once top-notch catfish holes,
inhabited by snapping turtles,
muskrats, a vibrant community
of snakes.
Ravenous foliage,
impertinent floating flora,
pond muck.
I look to dignity,
the reality of touching
Mother Earth.
My dogs taste and spray
the fence rows:
hedge, Callery pear, mulberry.
A slew of ants
tote back dinner
for their queen.
The dogs laugh
at my glacial pace. Victory
arrives in capitulation.
I surrender.
My Annual Descent
into the arcane worlds of
weeds, ticks, fleas,
saplings, snakes and ants.
My best response
until first frost:
Go down without a fight.
My primary battleground:
semi-abandoned ponds,
once top-notch catfish holes,
inhabited by snapping turtles,
muskrats, a vibrant community
of snakes.
Ravenous foliage,
impertinent floating flora,
pond muck.
I look to dignity,
the reality of touching
Mother Earth.
My dogs taste and spray
the fence rows:
hedge, Callery pear, mulberry.
A slew of ants
tote back dinner
for their queen.
The dogs laugh
at my glacial pace. Victory
arrives in capitulation.
I surrender.
