The Sing-Song of Frozen Birds

The winter birds promise us spring
and teach us optimism,
7-ounce beasts that shiver and starve
then sing sweetly when we come outside.
“I’m cold,” I say—“let’s head back in,”
while they cheerfully peck for
seeds, a stray berry, anything with energy
to survive: until Spring, that Heaven time
when food is warm and everywhere.
A time worth singing of,
for optimists who live in frozen nests.

February 2021