Redbird Love
By Joy Harjo
We watched her grow up.
She was the urgent chirper,
Fledgling flier.
And when spring rolled
Out its green
She’d grown
Into the most noticeable
Bird-girl.
Long-legged and just
The right amount of blush
Tipping her wings, crest
And tail, and
She knew it
In the bird parade.
We watched her strut.
She owned her stuff.
The males perked their armor, greased their wings,
And flew sky-loop missions
To show off
For her.
In the end
There was only one.
Isn’t that how it is for all of us?
There’s that one you circle back to — for home.
This morning
The young couple scavenges seeds
On the patio.
She is thickening with eggs.
Their minds are busy with sticks the perfect size, tufts of fluff
Like dandelion, and other pieces of soft.
He steps aside for her, so she can eat.
Then we watch him fill his beak
Walk tenderly to her and kiss her with seed.
The sacred world lifts up its head
To notice —
We are double-, triple-blessed.
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Thursday was mostly a chore day -- folding laundry, cleaning up the kitchen which doesn't have a dishwasher, and a bunch of computer work. I also went out a bunch of times to see the bunny who lives in the front yard. In the afternoon, we went by the house, where the walls are all now white and the hardwood floors are exposed, because we needed to pick up mail and pull out the things VVA couldn't fit on the truck last time to be donated in the morning.
We got haircuts, then took a walk in Cabin John Park on the way back to the Airbnb, where we had leftovers for dinner. I talked to my usual Thursday night group while Paul figured out how to make the TV work with the Roku, after which we watched last week's Sanditon, which we had missed. Our cats seem slightly better resigned to being here though I think they wish they had birds to watch out windows -- they can't see the front yard with the bunny:
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