Black-capped Chickadees

Having not done the things I wanted to do

and the things I've done not being what I wanted to do

I sit here looking at lichen on the north side of trees.

Black-capped chickadees

cheerful and truthful expression

grouped in platoons, sharing the point.

The tribes travel together

first finches, then chickadees

following the squirrels every morning.

What luxury, abundance! Handful after handful

of grass seed thrown, into wind.

The corn ripe and the rye with it.

The other main families: pines, roses, peas,

lilies, daisies, heath, birch and oak.

Maple, honeysuckle, pink, mustard, cypress, mint, olive, buckwheat,

      primrose, willow, buttercup, saxifrage, snapdragon, cactus.

Truth may be ascertained by considering

the truth we feel, the truth we're told,

the truth we reason, and the truth we've seen.

It is so good to be a chickadee.

To tell the truth cheerfully and joyfully.

In a way that makes others want to live.