The dead tree is the thin spike on the right.
In the dead tree, the nail-less finger that points at the sky, high as the tallest poplar, a woodpecker roosts. Each evening it calls from the neighbouring trees, calls a short, one-note cry as it flies to the dead tree, listens as it climbs to the top, but the call receives no answer. The old nest is empty now that the fledglings have flown, mate gone until next season perhaps. Autumn sun setting still strikes the bare tip, the dark hole, woodpecker sized, and fills it with warmth.
round and round the seasons go
the wind
the swirling water in the culvert
and love returns
with the spring
Photo© Gerry Zambonini
P.S. When I downloaded this photo, Wikipedia was down all over the world except here. Occasionally, living in the land time forgot has it’s advantages.
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Enchanting images and descriptive wordplay so superb
I’m pleased you like it. This little bird is so touching.
Poignant. Not the only empty nest around. 😉 But lovely imagery.
The woodpecker in that photo is stunning!
First night as empty nesters coming up. It’s a pretty bird and I feel so sorry for him/her without knowing at all why it comes back to that hole in the tree every evening and why it calls as it gets close. Like parent birds do to tell the chicks, I’m home!
Hope all goes well for her and you.
Thank you 🙂 600 miles feels like a long way away.
Yes, I know, but we have cell phones and computers now–not like when we were in school.
That’s true, but I don’t like the idea that she is too far away to get there and back in a day. It makes it feel so definitive.
That’s true, too. Our daughters’s colleges were much closer, which was comforting (and convenient–as we could attend events.) Now with older daughter living in Massachusetts, it’s different.
The others all lived at home because we were just a tram ride from the faculties, but the youngest decided she wanted to do a course that is only proposed by one of the northern universities.
Ours could have lived at home, but they wanted to go away, and we thought it would be good for them. Neither wanted to go very far though. 🙂
The others never even considered going away. French kids in general go to the university closest to home. It’s just as well as we didn’t have the means to send them further afield and pay for their accommodation. At one point there were four of them in college at the same time. One, we can manage 🙂
Yes, it’s a very different system here, I think.
The French are very stay-at-home.
Reblogged this on Slattery's Magazine and commented:
Neat little story/poem. There is a lot going on beneath its surface.
Thank you for the reblog 🙂
Reblogged this on Frank J. Tassone and commented:
#Haiku Happenings #7: Jane Dougherty’s latest #tankaprose!
Thank you, Frank 🙂
😇
The ghosts linger I think. They do for me.
but I like the note of hope at the end. The wheel turns…(K)
The thread is never broken, and as long as there’s a nest, there’s the chance that one or other of the chicks might come back to it.
They do drop in from time to time.
Once in a while is often enough.
Nature has so much patience…
Infinite it would seem.
There’s a message there, I think…
🙂
Reblogged this on anita dawes and jaye marie.
Thank you, Anita 🙂
Woodpeckers are soo great, and you made a wonderful poem about. Thank you!
Thank you! We look out for this one every evening. Maybe the woodpecker doesn’t mind, but I find it sad that there’s never anybody waiting when he/she gets home.
So true, Jane! A single man, divorced till next years.
Quite possibly 🙂
🙂
Beautiful 💜
Thank you 🙂
💜