Labrador Retriever  (credit: Wikipedia) 

Oyama Morning

The restful sleep of boyish innocence

Awakens, stretches, smiles through dreamy eyes,

Looks over sunlit window ledge and spies

His Labrador, Black Queen, fixed, pointing, tense,

Below the dewy grass and picket fence,

Stock still, as now the air her black nose tries,

Then delicate with stealth, she steps ... Surprise!

A pheasant cock splits dawn light rays' suspense

And arcing, flapping, squalling, climbs the skies,

Squawks window-by, a boyish reach away;

Flinch-startle back, now pause, now hear him bray;

Lean out and see the green-red-golden glide

Fade into drifting dust of breaking day,

The flowing tail and wings in squawking pride,

Through fresh, rose-saffron Canada, immense.

   

     

      Pheasant in flight  (credit: Archibald Thorburn, via Wikimedia Commons) 

   

                                   Vineyard in Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada

                                           (credit: Kelowna09, via Wikimedia Commons)