A bird sits alone on the power line
Along San Ygnacio Road
Just beyond our dining room window,
Solitary.
A sentinel alert to predators?
Or lost,
Abandoned as the flock few south?
Perhaps it’s a dawdler
Like “Herbie the Dawdler,” described in The Child’s World: Mother’s Guide-Index,
Volume Six of my boyhood’s favorite books
Reserved just for grownups
(Though I paged through it
With secret guilt),
Mother’s Guide provided remedies
For tantrums,
Thumb-sucking,
Bullying,
Lying,
And yes—“dawdling.”
Herbie takes his time
Dressing,
Eating,
Walking to school.
Mother’s Guide
Explains how mother’s over-attention
Convinced Herbie he could never please her.
A trait I perhaps share
With this daily laggard whose take-off from the nest
Was never perfect.
Together we linger
On the wire,
Over a second cup of coffee,
Before taking flight.