Dictionary of Owl

Who cares about the redbud tree, its flowers

half-black, half-pink, from winter’s April freeze;

who cares who lives halfway or dies too soon,

the blue jay’s baby squirming on bare ground,

the agonies of blood, the frigid breeze

shaking the fragile sense of April showers;

who cares who craves the heated pools of June,

the lake of boaters buzzing by or drowned.

Two vultures meet me at my open door,

scanning for carrion, the stink of spasms,

the sky-gods pecking rotting flesh for food;

who cares if this strange order ends in good,

or if the chickadee lands in the chasms

of endless carelessness forevermore.