A Loving Unkindness

Building Materials (Photo by Don Rearden 2013)

A Loving Unkindness


last year I doubted your choice
for a home
a Seuss-like spruce
spindly and impossibly tall
unprotected from the williwaw winds
that whip and turn trees
in this valley
into toothpicks

the stickhouse endured, your loving unkindness
survived, narrowly
one of your coal black youth
flew like Davinci's craft
busted a leg, landing instead
at the avian hospital,
thanks to a human neighbor

now you are back. Rebuilding.
flight after flight, with just
the right branch of hemlock or birch
you work together throughout the day
day after day, crafting a home
built to survive hurricane gusts
you prepare for new lives
eggs, then hungry mouths
open toward the sky, waiting

and I will not doubt you again
as I chose this mountain valley
for my nest,
too.


[Day 3 --- of my National Poetry Month Madness. A poem a day for a month.]