‘Meddling’: A Poem by Mary Jane Myers

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Meddling

A pair of cardinals build a Maytime nest
outside my home, deep in a boxwood tree.
My window bids me peek, watch them progress:
their secret ways we can so rarely see.

Three one-inch eggs, so bluish, speckled-quaint.
The female broods, orange-beaked beatitude.
Now two have hatched, begin their peckish plaint:
We’re helpless, hungry, please to bring us food!

One has survived: he’s sprouting fluffy wings.
Besotted, I approach the shrub and gaze.
The nestling startles; upwardly he flings,
then crashes to the ground, lies in a daze.

Does he still live? There’s no trace on the lawn.
For shame! I should have left that nest alone.

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Mary Jane Myers resides in Springfield, Illinois. She is a retired JD/CPA tax specialist. Her debut short story collection Curious Affairs was published by Paul Dry Books in 2018.