Home Base
family-owned corner grocery store
me and my sparrow friends and family
know how to make us any place a home:
we feather the branches
of the privet hedge
on the corner of school and knowlton
this morning
and if you don’t know better, you think
you’re at market basket
just as the doors open—
all us cashiers and stockers
and cart attendants
and deli counter workers
flocking together, shifting
hopping rearranging
to greet each other, every one,
buenos días, ¿como éstás?
big smiles, loud laughs,
generous hugs, cheerful cheekpecks,
high-speed chitterchirping—
‘nita, your mamá’s surgery go good?
hey, where’s the lowest gas price today?
did i tell you ‘bout we gonna have
a big party for our anniversary?
¡dios mio! juan making me crazy
we need a new car we need a new car.
then,
we fly
from our home base
to our stations
to work our jobs—
all us early birds
our bellies filled.
—dotty seiter
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3 x 3″; watercolor and ink on paper
mood-mini
2026
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Notes about poem and art:
• “family-owned” is a poem written in free verse with its inspiration coming from observations made on a particular late May predawn walk, one of countless predawn walks that act as my home base each day.
• Sepia and Umber showcases a warm palette of sparrow browns, earth tones I am drawn to perhaps related to my having been born under the sign of Taurus.
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10 responses to “Home Base”
Oo, so happy to hear that family-owned corner grocery store grabbed you, Carol. Thank you! I wrote it several weeks ago and got very absorbed in working on it over the course of several days.
Thank you also for your feedback on the contrast of slow drawing elements and watercolor washes as well as your enjoyment of the crisp edges in my mood-mini. I think I may start another mood-mini right now!
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Those congregations of sparrows always catch my attention—they do know how to start a day! I’ll miss them come winter. Thanks for enjoying my predawn walk poems, MaryAnn.
Yes, gold in the centers of those tiny dots to offer teeny sparks in the sparrow browns. We share our finding those earthy colors appealing (… along with countless other colors!!).
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Sheila, thank you—it’s gratifying to know that lively familiar warm fun images appeared in your mind in response to family-owned corner grocery store. JUST what the poet loves to hear!
You picked up on the elements that gave me pleasure as I painted and tapped: the hues, the mix of hard edges and melding colors, the golden dabs. Again, thank you!
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Trying this again (fingers crossed, internet gremlins – be kind!)
I adore this poem. And the sparrow-hued art accompaniment. I will be listening to birdsong as I walk in the evening and bike in the morning with a completely different eavesdropping mindset! There is so much more going on than my mind ever knew!!!
Thanks always for dazzling me! xoxoxo
oh, Lola, thank you for going back to re-comment after the internet gremlins absconded with your original comment. Such kindness and generosity. Where do you think the gremlins go with their ‘found art comments’? Is there an exhibit or spoken word event we don’t know about??
I listen to the early morning and evening birds-congregating-in-foliage chatter with a new eavesdropping mindset myself these days. There is so much more going on than our minds ever knew. And this, too : )
Back atcha with gratitude for your dazzling me!
xoxo
that’s totally it! totally!
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