For the second time since we’ve lived in this house, cardinals made a nest in the mountain laurel.
Inspired by Kristine O’Connell George’s book of poems titled Hummingbird Nest, I’ve written a few of my own haiku about our cardinals. I didn’t notice every detail, so it’s an incomplete narrative.
April 22
cardinal in the nest
safe in the mountain laurel—
plans for motherhood
April 24
Mama cardinal sits
on her nest in pouring rain
all day—never blinks
April 28
“Some birds are people
watchers,” says Tony Hoagland.
Mama Cardinal is.
May 1
Male cardinal busy
back and forth—female sits tight
unmoving, umoved
May 4
three baby bird mouths
open, parents flit for food —
We watch from inside
May 5
Papa Cardinal feeds
gaping baby mouths and Mama,
who feeds chicks also
May 7
baby cardinal pokes
out his fuzzy head—does not
see the nesting snail
May 8
quietly, oh so
quietly, pull up the blinds—
Mama Cardinal’s there
Almost Mother’s Day
through thunderstorms, winds
(damaging), hail, tornado—
Mama Cardinal sits
May 10
baby cardinal stands
gray and fluffy in the nest—
“I’m self-sufficient!”
May 12
Cardinal family pecks
the grass and then flies away—
the nets is empty
June 23
When the cardinals left
I threw out their nest. They’re back.
Rebuilt in one day.
June 28
Mama Cardinal eyes
me from her new-built nest: You
can never stop me
