Chipmunk

Chipmunk

Striped squirrel scampering,

chipping over the ground,

gathering grains and nuts,

berries, worms and birds’ eggs,

to cache in your burrow,

beneath my yard.   Cheek pouches

full of harvest and hoard.

You shy secret-seedling

spreader, racing stripes

a blur, no wonder you

must sleep for half the day,

hidden in your tidy

tunnel, resting…from the

sowing of our future.

Notes:  Chipmunks fulfill essential functions in woodland ecosystems.  Their activities harvesting and hoarding tree seeds play an integral role in seedling establishment.  They consume fungi in symbiotic relationships with trees and are a means of dispersal for spores of subterranean truffles.

Photo is mine.