A Bird Sings In The Tree Across The Lawn Poem by William L Roberts

With the first faint glow of dawn
A bird sings in the tree across the lawn.
I'm awake, restless but unwilling to move.
There's an endless hour yet before the alarm,
How stale is the air in this room!
One moment, the room's still,
The next it echos with sound,
More like the Clash or the Stones
Than sweet and tender folk songs.
It speaks of wild joy and freedom.

The alarm goes off and I sit with a jolt.
'What a dream! All of summer in a breath!
I dreamt my eyes opened to a new world.
My head and bones rang with my song,
Our neighborhood spread beneath me,
An open world of 3D possibility.
I sneered at the darkened window of our room
Our house looked a small cage
From that limb in the maple tree.
Then you showed up...
All energy and iridescent color
Infrared through ultraviolets.
You didn't think much of the nest -
We had to build it all over again -
How I worried the neighbor would slip in!
You were so pretty, but flighty and not to be trusted.
Sitting on the eggs proved hot work and buggy.
I constantly worried about squirrels
And unseen rustlings in the greenery.
The eggs hatched and it was bug catching time,
Dawn to dusk, how my wings ached!
I watched their first tottering efforts on the limb,
Sure they'd fall
There was nothing I could do at all.
Then they left.
Left me bereft.
I got to thinking of winter holidays in Brazil
But our damn cat caught me bathing in a puddle.'

'Hey not so much! Remember it's spring break?
I don't have to get up?
Maybe when I teach my class about the birds of New England
You can come in and talk to 'em.'

As I get in my car to drive to work
I hear it again across the lawn.
It still speaks of wild joy and freedom.