If you've been following my writing prompts I've written from the perspective of a bird, a cloud, and a snake. Then I wrote about my neighborhood—a lesson in seeing. This next prompt encorporated all my pieces and seemed daunting at first. We were to choose one word from our neighborhood piece and write from 3 perspectives: bird, cloud, snake. The word I chose was 'dandelions' and the form of a poem surprised me but it literally wrote itself:

Nature Returns

The weeds are tightly
condensed
like a New York City block.
Overhead the Raven
watches intently, wings stretched
but still.
She circles like a kite
sans string.
People with their
dogs and machines
are long gone
she notes.
The once verdant lawn lies abandoned.
Nature returns.
The dandelions sway
next to a few of their more colorful
cousins
who flit and flirt
with the breeze.
The Raven aloft has
no interest
in flowers.
Her gaze seeks other.

The cloud passing
by
recalls the once lush lawn
she happily shared her
bounty with.
Where once was new-shoot-green
now only burnt brown
and grass turned to straw.
The dandelions sway
and smile in her shadow.
She floats on
seeking a hope seeded plot
to receive her precious
gifts.

The serpent cannot navigate
the weed jungle
stealthily.
The withered grass and weed trunks
crackle and whisper
under long belly.
Mice feet freeze while the tiniest
heart accelerates—
Mice feet DASH.
Serpent strikes,
weeds settle.
Nature returns.
The dandelions sway
as she passes.
Only the Raven notes
her trail.