This morning, the prompts inspired me to go out for a walk. I wore gloves with the full intention to collect small things I encountered along the way, but once out there, I didn’t want to bring home little bits of plastic or the weird broken vial. The little flowers and squirrels didn’t want to come home with me either, so I collected these pictures and memories of all the sounds.

The poem

The Sound Collector

It starts with the dogs running to the fence barking
they don’t stop after I have passed
as if I was the on button and someone lost the remote

then the squirrels skitter up the pole
one settles at the very top and peers down
while the other chitters at me from over the cylindrical transformer

a couple passes me on the other side of the street
we all say “Good Morning”
the first words I’ve heard today

a large dog’s deep bark echos
its own response
a stimulating conversation

I hear a car coming,
but it never passes me
I am half way around my walking loop

ahead I am surprised by
the beeping of a truck backing up
the prime truck delivers

to my right, a woman clearly says
“Not right now”
from inside her house

she is interrupted by the prime truck backing up
the click of crows feet landing on a roof
and someone opening and closing a door

a cyclist changing gears
speeds by leaning forward in full regalia
the wheels whir

the prime truck beeps, rolling out of another driveway
it drives the short distance across the street
clicks and clacks as the van doors open and close

small birds sing in counterpoint
the prime truck beeps
the gruff neighbor says, “good morning”

the morning dove calls like a sick goose
guggle-guggle–wow, guggle-guggle–wow
the prime truck beeps and beeps and beeps

The prompts

NaPoWriMo

Prompt: create a walking archive

PAD Challenge

Prompt: use these words

• bump
• embrace
• fixture
• howl
• lonely
• resolve