Doldrums

Blending into the drab
wet
winter landscape
song sparrows flock
to scattered seed
spread
on the icy surface
Dark-eyed juncos
chocolate-colored white-throats
rusty-hued chipmunks
forage
through the dormant
garden

Red-bellied woodpeckers
grey squirrels
and blue jays
scavenge
the soggy field
for cracked corn
overlooked
by raccoons
not yet harvested
by field mice

In a crimson flash
a cardinal perches
in the hazelnut outside
my window.

Whose spirits will you lift
today?