Lessons from the Woods

Woodlands crackle
beneath their icy coat
the buck’s hooves
breaking a thousand tiny mirrors
after last night’s ice storm

cedars weighed down
hedge trunks shining and feeders
ringed with birds anxious
to fill craw and belly

doves gleaning beneath
woodpeckers riding suet cakes
winter dull goldfinches
snatching sunflower seed
in relays while chickadees dart

the lot of them sharing space
if not feathered friendship
and if not that at least
a kind of patient tolerance

would so the world.