Here are three facts about birds. The ruby-crowned kinglet is the second smallest bird in Kentucky. The first smallest is the ruby-throated hummingbird, which, if you think about it, could also be called the redneck hummingbird. The state bird is the cardinal. According to your daughter, cardinals are visitors from heaven. “My daddy sends birds to visit me,” she likes to say. You can have that fourth fact for free. I tell you all this to say there was a cardinal at my feeder yesterday. Also, two tufted titmice and a ruby-crowned kinglet I mistook for a hummingbird. For one bright second, I forgot. Forgot that summer is gone. Forgot you’ve been gone a year, too. A titmouse flew away. The other asked me, “Did you know his name means crown?” then he snatched a seed and flew back to the maple tree. Only the cardinal remained. “I don’t believe in visitors from the great beyond,” I told him. “It’s okay to take comfort,” he chirped back, “even in the things you don’t believe.”
Read More
Poetry - ISSUE #27