by Melanie Choukas-Bradley
The fish crows in my neighborhood
Are engaged in conversation
Not the sharp caws of their cousins
More of a quiet how are you I am too
In nasal tones that don’t hurt for sounding French
Small Andrena mining bees
Are on the wing in Rock Creek Park
Gathering pollen from peppermint striped spring beauty flowers
Then flying home to feed their young
An osprey pair is nesting on the Potomac
In a marriage surviving biannual journeys
Of thousands of miles
We too are nesting and gathering
And quietly conversing all across America
Wishing to be seen and heard
Or not seen and heard
Wishing to carry on
Melanie Choukas-Bradley is a naturalist and author of several nature books, including City of Trees, A Year in Rock Creek Park, Finding Solace at Theodore Roosevelt Island and Wild Walking—A Guide to Forest Bathing Through the Seasons. Many of her poems have been featured in The New Verse Newsand Beate Sigriddaughter’s Writing in a Woman’s Voice.
