Tag Archives: birds
This winter’s day
You do not have the flu. The cat is not sick, nor the dog lost. The bitter cold has not burst the pipes. The firewood is dry enough to catch the perfect flame thrown by the ordinary wonder of a rough-struck match. The small, wild things — plumed, delicate — fly hollow-boned to the feeders […]
Nearly enough
I like the sound of my phone not ringing, the stillness of my door unknocked. I like the invitations I do not receive, the peaceful hollow of my empty mailbox. Unsolicited for any response, I offer none. Now, I have nearly enough time. The hummingbird feeder needs sugar water; the nuthatches, more seed. If not […]
Just enough
This trace of snow is not enough, not enough to ease the long drought, quench the earth, quash the coming fires. Too little, too late in the age of our realized ruin, yet enough, just enough to record in bas-relief the perishing evidence of remaining wonders: the fragile tines of an early junco’s foot, the […]
The wren house exults
Oh, you are here! How long I have waited my eastern exposure my perfect aperture my rustic charm and so near the plum aflower in delicate pink the serviceberry in welcoming white Still you did not come and then the wasps their thin grey gag occluding the mouth from which I wished only […]
Vertigo
Snow falls all night as I lie beneath down only the cat against my flank, her weighted contentment, making me necessary in the oriented world. Vertigo again — reeling adrift — meclizine in the dark and waiting, still, on the gradual repair of the rotting rudder. The aging body comes round slowly if at all […]
This winter’s day
You do not have the flu. The cat is not sick, nor the dog lost. The bitter cold has not burst the pipes. The firewood is dry enough to catch the perfect flame thrown by the ordinary wonder of a rough-struck match. The small, wild things — plumed, delicate — fly hollow-boned to the feeders […]
Food chain
If you feed wild birds long enough, you begin to feel as if you are doing something important. Especially during the winter, when the mercury flirts with zero and every natural food source is blanketed in snow, the birds come to depend on your largesse. In return, they reliably offer pleasures only sporadically available in the realm […]
Meditatio Ephemera 