As my boots crunch through the hard snow,
Each step sounding like I'm chomping on potato chips,
(And now I am hungry)
I notice something peeking out through the icy surface
That doesn't seem to belong in the frozen landscape,
Yet it's calling out, "Look at me!"

I bend down, knees creaking, push the snow away and realize it's a nest,
Although its inhabitants are long gone.
I pick it up and turn it around in my hands like I'm molding clay on a potter's wheel,
Admiring the perfect construction
And the wonder of nature's ability
To teach birds to build nests,
And spiders to build intricate webs,
And all creatures to innately know
What it takes to survive
Without having to read a book of instructions.

I walk over to the large maple in the corner of the yard
And gently place the nest
In the V of two branches of the tree.
While the cold has caused me to already long for spring,
Now the feeling is more pressing
As I resolve to check on the nest daily, once the season of icy precipitation is over,
So I can watch a new family move in
Or maybe it will be the former one,
And I will smile
As the warmth and thoughts of new life revive me.


© by Nancy Machlis Rechtman.
Used with the author's permission.