With the first faint glow of dawn <br />A bird sings in the tree across the lawn. <br />I'm awake, restless but unwilling to move. <br />There's an endless hour yet before the alarm, <br />How stale is the air in this room! <br />One moment, the room's still, <br />The next it echos with sound, <br />More like the Clash or the Stones <br />Than sweet and tender folk songs. <br />It speaks of wild joy and freedom. <br /> <br />The alarm goes off and I sit with a jolt. <br />'What a dream! All of summer in a breath! <br />I dreamt my eyes opened to a new world. <br />My head and bones rang with my song, <br />Our neighborhood spread beneath me, <br />An open world of 3D possibility. <br />I sneered at the darkened window of our room <br />Our house looked a small cage <br />From that limb in the maple tree. <br />Then you showed up... <br />All energy and iridescent color <br />Infrared through ultraviolets. <br />You didn't think much of the nest - <br />We had to build it all over again - <br />How I worried the neighbor would slip in! <br />You were so pretty, but flighty and not to be trusted. <br />Sitting on the eggs proved hot work and buggy. <br />I constantly worried about squirrels <br />And unseen rustlings in the greenery. <br />The eggs hatched and it was bug catching time, <br />Dawn to dusk, how my wings ached! <br />I watched their first tottering efforts on the limb, <br />Sure they'd fall <br />There was nothing I could do at all. <br />Then they left. <br />Left me bereft. <br />I got to thinking of winter holidays in Brazil <br />But our damn cat caught me bathing in a puddle.' <br /> <br />'Hey not so much! Remember it's spring break? <br />I don't have to get up? <br />Maybe when I teach my class about the birds of New England <br />You can come in and talk to 'em.' <br /> <br />As I get in my car to drive to work <br />I hear it again across the lawn. <br />It still speaks of wild joy and freedom.<br /><br />William L Roberts<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-bird-sings-in-the-tree-across-the-lawn/
