by Penelope Scambly Schott
The green birdhouse
has a high tin roof
The green birdhouse
hangs crooked on the fence
The green birdhouse
has a hole and a perch
but I am too heavy
to perch on the perch
and I am too wide
to squeeze through the hole
and look, the birdhouse
is packed with sticks
which is why I can’t hide
in the green birdhouse
Penelope Scambly Schott is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. Her newest book is On Dufur Hill, poems about the cycle of the year in a small wheat-growing town.