Nagging
The mother wren who dug out a nest
in the flower box under my window
so I couldn’t water geraniums
on one side has coaxed out her chick
to wobble on a broad hydrangea leaf
and has been nonstop nagging this kid
all morning from a twig on the red maple.
It gets maddening; we’ve no patience
for it. When the baby finally flutters
over, she’ll wing off with no more ado
and babyhood will be over. We could
keep watching this fresh bird learn
to hop from limb to limb, listening
to its desperate squeaking to no one,
until it too finally flaps away into life
in the world. But why bother?
In a month, ten of our years to a wren,
they won’t even know each other
perched together. Too late to water
now. An upside was her cocky tail
and cheery call. Learning why she hated
chipmunks and that wrens peck holes
in other birds’ eggs just for the fun of it
was a downside. Finally, up or down
seems the same for us. We could learn nothing
useful from this lesson in the school
of Nature with its homework and quizzes
that only prove us adequate
to continue toward that graduation
into works and days where light and dark
roll ever faster into one another.
in the flower box under my window
so I couldn’t water geraniums
on one side has coaxed out her chick
to wobble on a broad hydrangea leaf
and has been nonstop nagging this kid
all morning from a twig on the red maple.
It gets maddening; we’ve no patience
for it. When the baby finally flutters
over, she’ll wing off with no more ado
and babyhood will be over. We could
keep watching this fresh bird learn
to hop from limb to limb, listening
to its desperate squeaking to no one,
until it too finally flaps away into life
in the world. But why bother?
In a month, ten of our years to a wren,
they won’t even know each other
perched together. Too late to water
now. An upside was her cocky tail
and cheery call. Learning why she hated
chipmunks and that wrens peck holes
in other birds’ eggs just for the fun of it
was a downside. Finally, up or down
seems the same for us. We could learn nothing
useful from this lesson in the school
of Nature with its homework and quizzes
that only prove us adequate
to continue toward that graduation
into works and days where light and dark
roll ever faster into one another.
