Lakeside Bird Feeder, First Day
written by: D.R. James
It should’ve taken only that scouting,
squawking jay to get the word out.
Framed by a pane, on a perch,
he was posed, a post card, puffed
against the brittle cold. His stylish
scarf feathers flicked an impatient face,
and his scruffy topknot signaled
who knew who in the neighborhood:
“Easy Supreme and Sunflower Mélange
swinging free off this deck!” See, he’d need
some wirier guys to stir it up, to urge
the tiny silo to flowing so he could
swoop in, scoop out the run-off: “Anyone
game enough to give it a go?” But, no.
And now, not a single soul for supper.
D. R. James, recently retired from nearly 40 years of teaching college writing, literature, and peace studies, lives, writes, bird-watches, and cycles with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near Saugatuck, Michigan. His latest of ten collections are Mobius Trip and Flip Requiem (Dos Madres Press, 2021, 2020), and his prose and poems have appeared internationally in a wide variety of print and online anthologies and journals
Latest posts by D. R. James (see all)
- Same Old Same Old - October 10, 2024
- Field Notes from an Old Chair - July 16, 2024
- Faux Thaw - April 5, 2024
