Baby Evening Grosbeak Caught In Blueberry Netting
All fear and desire—brown wing-beat
after wing beat—this blur cannot burst
from its prison—Linda opens
a chute, says, Out! Like dazed angels,
we chase and chasten from one end
of our netting to the next. Linda unties
twisty-ties, and the nestling bites the flesh
between her palm and thumb, escapes
into our spruce tree, chitters at us. Clearly,
we’re his sun-struck wardens, and this
not-yet orange, white, and black
songbird soon will sprint from plum
tree to hawthorn, cracking cherry
stones in its gold-white beak.
Richard Widerkehr’s work has appeared in Rattle, Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, Arts & Letters, and others. He earned his M.A. from Columbia University and won two Hopwood first prizes for poetry at the University of Michigan. His latest book is In The Presence Of Absence (MoonPath Press, 2017). He also has three chapbooks and a novel, Sedimental Journey (Tarragon Books, 2004). His new book, At The Grace Cafe, is forthcoming from Main Street Rag.