What Rough Beast | Covid-19 Edition | 05 11 20 | Yvette Green

Yvette Green
A Cardinal

A single cardinal
on a stone grey day
among trees that await spring
on a tattered fence.

He shows up

unaware,
or maybe very aware
that I need him.

He reminds me there is a season for everything
and today is the season to stare at him—

to follow his wings as he ascends to the highest branch
to wait for him to return before me.

He never returns my gaze.
He doesn’t break the fourth wall,
though he knows I’m there.
He understands my need to participate behind glass.

He shows me how to be mindful.
He sings a praise song.

This is the season to need
a single cardinal
in a single frame.

—Submitted on 03/25/2020

Yvette Green‘s essay “Parting Ways” appears in Seasons of Our Lives: Winter (Knowledge Access Books, 2014), edited by by Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett. Born in Nashville, she lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, and is the mother of two sons, 11 and 16. Green holds an MA in English from University of Maryland.

SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.

If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.