Poem 5: In honor of Mary Oliver

Today's prompt: "In honor of Mary Oliver’s work, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that is based in the natural world: it could be about a particular plant, animal, or a particular landscape. But it should be about a slice of the natural world that you have personally experienced and optimally, one that you have experienced often. Try to incorporate specific details while also stating why you find the chosen place or plant/animal meaningful."

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Despite Us

Robins bathe in groups

on the tarred roof outside my office window,

fluttering and inflating

shiny feathers.

Where do they spend the winters?

Some make it south, but others

hunch down in the ancient maple, brown

as the cracked bark along its gnarled limbs.

I never see them.

They could be 

shriveled clumps of leaves,

frozen to branches.

But now they burst into song, 

huh huh huhuhuhuhuhuh,

and chew chew chew,

hopping over our brown lawns

to collect shredded twigs

and ragged leaves,

to stuff their clotted nests

into the cubbyholes on our houses.

Last year a nest appeared

in the light socket

outside our back door.

I swept it down with a broom

but it came back

again and again,

a pocket of spring, 

packed with 

two blue-

green eggs

like a fist

around promises.