No trick of the light in the summer forest, 
the two-tone crows snatch sunflower seeds, 
then hop down to dip beaks in the cool, clear stream. 
This sparkling afternoon is far from sunset 
and our stormy morning. The traffic’s soft swoosh 
traces a path around Poland’s thin, pale trees, 
their forest of foxes; boars with striped piglets; 
hooded crows, half deep shadow, half wan sunlight. 
You think this place is just a yard. We don’t see 
humans hike here, hear footsteps crunch leaves. Just once 
someone’s cat leapt to find no birds, only seeds. 

* A forest nook for birds and wild animals by Leśny Zakątek, Live Birds Poland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EZsnPekrGw

Marianne Szlyk’s

most recent books are Why We Never Visited the Elms (Poetry Pacific, 2022), Poetry en Plein Air (Pony One Dog Press, 2020), and On the Other Side of the Window (Pski’s Porch, 2019). Her poems have appeared in Verse-Virtual, Poetry Breakfast, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and Pure Slush’s anthology Home, among others. She has fond memories of taking art classes at the Worcester (MA) Art Museum with her father, drawing shoes, plastic grapes, and bottles. She lives in the DC area with the wry poet and flash fiction writer Ethan Goffman and their new cat Tyler.