Late afternoon in the tree tops

Today woodpeckers share the trees with the moon.

Seemingly out of place in the blue daylight,
a pale waxing gibbous moon rises above the eastern ridge,
looking for all the world like a small cloud through the branches.

A Red-bellied Woodpecker moves from tree to tree,
flashing red and disappearing,
ceaselessly scratching, pecking, hunting for a morsel of insect.

From somewhere further up the hollow,
a Pileated Woodpecker announces himself,
and the shadows grow steadily longer in the afternoon light.