Hello Bird

slate-gray dark-eyed junco

only now, mid-afternoon, late October

I spot you, rocking boat on flayed forsythia

— pale limbs, flagging yellow leaves —

another you on withered Queen Anne’s Lace

— bendy stalks, umbelled dry flowers —

now twenty you spring like bouncing

beads from browning grass & weeds

all winter you’ll forage near & far

undismayed by cold & snow & ice

welcome home, you feathery surrogate

you mystery marker of circular time