When Inspiration Is Needed by Lois Perch Villemaire

Why in gray December

when my windshield is frozen 

are there robins with red breasts 

on the dogwood tree in the front yard?

I thought birds should be  

heading south soaring high 

in zig-zag formation not making a grand return 

until they trumpet the smell of spring. 

There are no leaves on the dogwood tree 

instead little red berries sit wedged

on naked branches and twigs. 

Robins perch, nibble with their strange beaks

and exit, wings aimed upward

to the anchor of taller trees nearby

as if to tell the next robin to take a turn.

This seems like a promising start to a poem, 

my white screen stares at me this morning, 

nature is always prepared to display 

an inspiring show and tell, 

providing fresh material to brush onto the page, 

dab here and there simply by noticing 

what is happening, never blah 

right outside my window.

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Lois Perch Villemaire resides in Annapolis, MD. Her work has been published in such places as Six Sentences, Ekphrastic Review, The RavensPerch, Trouvaille Review, FewerThan500, The Drabble, Pen In Hand, and Flora Fiction.  Her poems have been included in anthologies published by Truth Serum Press, Global Insides - the Vaccine, and Love & the Pandemic by Moonstone Arts Center. She was a finalist in the 2021 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry.