White-Breasted Nuthatches
by Cathy Hailey

Wall walking edges,
corners of portico bricks,
lookout on ledges,
 
performing wry tricks,
our upside-down acrobats
shinnying down trunks.
 
Forest habitats
furnish foraging for chunks
of tree nuts, acorns,
 
wedged in, hacked open.
Nasal calls—staccato horns--
enchant mates chosen,
 
fated cavity nesters,
woodpecker hole subletters.

Shared with permission of the author.

Cathy Hailey teaches as an adjunct lecturer in Johns Hopkins University’s online MA in Teaching Writing program and previously taught high school English and Creative Writing in Prince William County, Virginia. She is Northern Region vice President of The Poetry Society of Virginia and organizes In the Company of Laureates, a biennial reading of poets laureate held in PWC. Her writing has been published in The New Verse News, Poetry Virginia, Written in Arlington, Stay Salty: Life in the Garden State (Vol 2), Poetry for Ukraine (THE POET), Family (THE POET), and NoVA Bards, Poems are forthcoming in The Poetry Society of Virginia Centennial Anthology.

Natural Points of Interest

You don’t have to look far to notice the “wildlife apartment complex.” A tree that looks dead can actually be home to many subletters: woodpeckers, fungus, beetles, termites. Note the surrounding holly trees, a favorite hiding spot for birds. At the foot of the bench are clusters of clubmoss. The beaver-created wetlands that used to be here have been drained by a break in the dam. Further east of the bench along the trail are many water-filled ditches, which are the early spring breeding ground for frogs and salamanders.