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Dormancy (December 2024) (poem)

  • Writer: Imagine a Bird
    Imagine a Bird
  • Dec 8, 2024
  • 1 min read




“Some birds eat in the moment,” the ornithologist turns to me and explains,

“they spend their entire day chasing insects,

searching for seeds to consume right then and there…”

Others, such as the downy woodpecker,

cache food in the savings banks of trees –

in slender crevices and

deep within round pockets

between flakey layers of bark

30 meters above ground.

They labor now

in order to receive nutrients and energy later.

 

This morning,

I observe their movements in riverside trees and shrubs and

I hold their efforts in the highest regard.

I am tired.

Being human is hitting hard lately.

So, I translate, place the Babel fish in my ear, as it were:


To each her own rhythm and cycle.

One person’s thought-filled rest is another’s run

at astonishing speed.

Sleep, work.

Conserve, consume.

Multi-task or

spend an entire day peering at one jigsaw puzzle,

slowly assembling minutes into hours.

 

Deep in the endocrine system,

I understand mere existence as labour,

the smallest of motions as acts of survival.

 

 


Written at Nancy Gonzalez St Clair’s workshop, Hands That Shape the World: Poetry Inspired by Labor (12/7/24, Lodi, CA)

 

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