Fredric Hildebrand

The Sound of Spring

I recall a blackbird
perched on our chimney,

and the melting snow,
and the ice gone overnight,
and the homecoming

of mallards, mergansers,
goldeneyes, and geese
to the open river,

and the end of the slowed
season with neighbors
now out of their houses,

this blackbird

warming herself and singing
to a mate in the treetops
and down the chimney to me,

not exactly the bird
but the cleansing
rains and green maple
days that followed her.

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Fredric Hildebrand is a retired physician who lives and writes in Neenah, WI.

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