A Rain of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

Author's note: In 2021, we've all heard about the record-setting droughts. In some areas, though, we've been experiencing record-setting rains. Including my area, southeast Louisiana. Here, spring torrential downpours are often followed by so-called fall-outs.

I guess the term sounds pretty nuclear if you're not a birder, but it's perfectly natural. During a fall-out, exhausted migrating birds “fall out” to fuel up on what food and rest they can find before resuming their journey north.

This cycle of poems was inspired by a large fall-out of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks that landed in my neighborhood after one of our more melodramatic April "showers.” If by “shower,” you mean rain of Biblical proportions.

The Resurrection Fern

Curls dead as cut hair

Uncurl as hair never can

Green and dripping new

The Last To Leaf

the old pecan tree was once a nut

i know because i picked it up myself

and yes i knew you grow nut trees from clones

but i didn't want the nuts raining down collecting squirrels

i only wanted shade

(although some years the nuts rain down collecting squirrels)

lotta character in that old tree

says the tree guy trimming branches before hurricane season

he means he can tell

tree didn't come from the garden center

ah, well, after all the hurricanes and tree falls

there are still a few trees left

that came from seed and nut and squirrel and nature

in its youth, every march the neighbors would ask,

you think it's dead or what

it'll leaf in april, i'd say,

and they'd nod, and it always did

now it's so big nobody asks

for fear i'd take it as a hint to cut it down

it's an ecosystem now

resurrection fern and that vine I don't know the name of

part of the local atmosphere

providing that all-important curb appeal the real estate brokers like so much

solid, says the tree guy, healthy

lotta character, he repeats

this time smiling

4,000 Days of Rain

we laugh at noah's 40 days & 40 nights

float that boat over here

(you're gonna need a bigger boat)

400 days & 400 nights of endless, eternal rain

loud sometimes, the clap of thunder

pounding rain slams as loud as zeus himself

two inches an hour sounds no different from six

but at six the street becomes a river

get those kids out of the street, stop bothering those eels,

oh for pity's sake, one day, one of those watersnakes

is going to be a water moccasin

and, yeah, here comes momma screaming in her hip waders

sudden, then, the silence

softly, softly

how long & high did they fly in search of land

ahoy there, look and lo!

one by one

then three by three

then more

the rose-breasted grosbeaks begin to rain down to the feeder

If you enjoyed these little nature poems inspired by my rainy life in Louisiana, I'd be thrilled if you gently tapped the <3 button. Tips gratefully accepted.