The sheltering slowdown & our thicket-facing back deck allow for splendid bird watching

We’re fortunate to live in their neighborhood,
awakening to insistent chirpsong & witnessing their busy business the whole day through

Inhaling heavily-perfumed humidity,
we blow good luck kisses to swooping bright cardinals, our reincarnated family reassuring us in these trying times

We note nesting robins & stacatto-necked sparrows
tall athletic bluejays & black speckled woodpeckers
groundhopping wren & sultry-throated mockingbirds

We crane in ominous wonder to see
soaring high high
a wide-winged bird of prey (I couldn’t tell what)
riding the low sky currents

Wild beings they remain, not as our entertainment but a graceful reminder
to our comparatively bumbling selves
that we too are in an ecosystem
bigger than the latest videconference
& we say thank you
avians,
Amen