Balinese national Day of Silence
honoring the Hindu New Year.
In two wing beats, a pileated woodpecker glides
to the woods where I have seen his mate.
January first. My world is muffled in snow.
A sparrow scallops the air. A few finches, their yellow
muted by winter, wing feeder to feeder.
The snow begins to fall again. I imagine the birds’
hunger, imagine them late in the night
huddled deep in pockets of pine and spruce,
hearts slowed, bony feet gripping boughs, waiting
for the Earth to revolve again toward the light,
spin silent in space, quiet as snow settling on snow.
