April Idyll

by Don Kimball

A red-tailed squirrel

perched high

on the side

of a peeling birch,

as if

paused

midair,

twitching its tawny tail,

until

a sudden gust

shook the trees,

revealing

a strip

of curling bark,

its burnished underside

parched wallpaper

Don Kimball is the author of two chapbooks, Journal of a Flatlander (Finishing Line Press 2009) and Skipping Stones (Pudding House Publications 2008). His poetry has appeared in The Formalist, The Lyric, The Blue Unicorn, and various other journals and anthologies. In 2007, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize; in 2009, he was nominated for the Pen New England Literary Award; and he has won two first prizes and a second prize in national contests sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire. Don is a board member on the NH Poetry Society, and currently hosts the monthly poetry reading series at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, NH.