Chuck Toll Poems

I’m very pleased to introduce to you
A teacher who is and isn’t new.
Though new to some of you today
Last year he joined our work and play.
...

“There are too many squirrels! ” my wife exclaimed. “They've taken over. They not only eat all the birdseed I put out, they eat the bird feeders themselves. They’re gnawing their way into the birdhouses too. Do you think they’ll start in on the house? ”

I looked through the kitchen window above the sink. She was right. On the lawn before my eyes, more than a dozen squirrels gamboled on the sun-dappled grass, dug relentlessly in an area I was trying to reseed that spring, chased each other through the branches, and swung acrobatically from the feeders they were plundering. Goldfinches, titmice, sparrows, chickadees and a few warblers perched uncertainly in the branches above. Only the mourning doves, whose gentle tones and appearance belie an unexpectedly resolute nature, seemed willing to challenge the squirrels in the search for food.
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Our driveway has become
A killing field for worms,
And we don’t know what to do.
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Evil Child is clearly learning
With her body slowly turning.
My new teaching methods
Have gained her full attention.
Dangling all day from a rope,
Bereft of help or hope,
Shows what may befall a lass
Difficult in class.
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The pickup sits waiting in the drive.
The well-kept house next door is silent.
The husband has come back to collect
A few of his favorite things before
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Robert Frost once observed in a moment of pet,
That tennis is foolish when played without net.
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For years an orange shimmer
rippling the dark tank water
with our red slider turtle
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The coyote was annoyed the van was late.
A dusty cloud, though, signaled its approach,
And soon Ramon was there and beckoning
Those inside. Nine shapes in all climbed out.
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Boe the Cat was not an easy cat to like
But then he did not like others either.
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All has not been corrected,
But like Scrooge ressurrected
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