My dad, Allan Watts, and his friend Dave Schultz, at the Kappa Kappa banquet, Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1956.
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Chain Reaction
A toad ate a fly
a good deed was done
then a snake ate the toad
and lay coiled in the sun.
A hawk saw the snake
from his perch in a tree
the fly, toad and snake
are now history.
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The Lobster
The lobster crawls on the ocean floor
the things he eats were alive before
some rotten clams or an old dead fish
and other gross things that I'll list if you wish
I wouldn't eat what a lobster would eat
but to eat the lobster that's a treat.
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The Eagle
The eagle floats high over the trees
as he sets his wings to the summer breeze.
He drifts in a circle without an end
'til he sees his prey and swiftly descends.
I wish I could fly where the eagle flies
high over the trees and across the skies.
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Overbite
I watched a beaver cut down a tree
I saw him, but he didn't see me.
His teeth were crooked, with several spaces.
I've called my dentist, that beaver needs braces.
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The Mink
You seldom see the elusive mink.
He moves as fast as the eye can wink.
So should you see him, don't bother to stare.
For chances are, he'll no longer be there.
--------
Ground Hogs
Do ground hogs hog ground?
I don't think that they do.
Nor do wood chucks chuck wood
Not at me or at you.
To give them such names
Seems a strange thing to do
I think we should change them
How about you?
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God's Woods
Have you ever gone
for a walk in the fall
when God with bright colors
has painted all.
Have you seen the sly deer
he's as smart as can be
I never see him
before he sees me.
Have you noticed the beech tree
with trunk smooth and grey
and its coppery leaves
that don't fall but they stay.
Have you seen the geese
overhead in a V
as they call to the world
"just let us be free."
Have you sat near a meadow
in the haze damp and grey
and watched while the sun
seems to melt away.
Have you seen the chipmunk
hiding acorns in clumps
he resembles a child
with a case of the mumps.
Have you followed the squirrel
from tree to tree
and welcomed the return
of the chickadee.
Have you seen the great Oak
with leaves scarlet and gold
and the maples so varied
red, orange and bold.
Have you sat by a brook
as it babbles along
and the splash of a trout
interrupted its song.
If you've seen any of these
then you must surely know
that God only God
could put on such a show.
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Snake's Rattles
They say the rattlesnake does not like to fight.
If I meet one someday, I hope they are right.
Rather than fight, he'll run away.
And hide 'neath a rock for the rest of the day.
He seems immature and childish too
And I know just why, and I'll share it with you.
You know why he tends to run from battles
He's ten years old and still has his rattles.
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The Killers
When think of the hunter
do you think of the kill.
A man with a gun
and some masculine thrill.
Do you think his main aim
is to hang a buck on the rack,
then sit and drink booze
in some tarpaper shack.
You may also think
that hunters are cruel
that they laugh when they kill
like some diabolical fool
You may think that all hunters
kill all things they see
some during the day
and many at night
Well you know what I think
I think you are right.
----
I am from a family of parents who died very early.
My father's mother, Bernice Watts, died when my father was 24.
My mother's father, Harold Foster, died when my mother was 17.
My father's father, Edgar Watts, died when my father was 36.
My father, Allan Watts, died when I was 32.
Perhaps the reason I talk so much to myself is because I am talking to all of these people who died, most before I was born, and some, before I had anything to say.
I lost most of my family before I even knew it.
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