Here’s to fortune and health
for all the downy woodpeckers
I’ve ever seen on my feeder
It’s almost Christmas and I feel nothing
but fear for myself as I wish good cheer
to every last feathered one of them
Before they disappear forever
into the next mass extinction
may they feast and be merry
all the way to the end (and
may the squirrels I accidentally support as well
have a twinkle in their eyes as they pass)
It doesn’t much feel like Christmas to me
but when I see the animals I’m reminded
that part of the world
thinks they’ll be talking to each other
at midnight on Christmas Day
and they’ll be saying calming things
about some baby or another born to save us
If we make it to the Second Coming
I’m sure there won’t be many animals
left to talk about it
So for now I’ll encourage them to eat
and smile at their heads bobbing in and out
because as the song says
it don’t feel much like Christmas time
To me it’s more like Good Friday
and grief’s darkness and I’m thinking
we won’t make it to Easter
and the stone will sit there unmoved
with a raven and a dove perched on top
for a few seconds before they topple
into the dust
Of all the myths we’ve lived by
the one I have the least faith in
is the one that taught us to think death
while awful was impermanent
so complacency in the face of extinction
was a rational state of mind
The downy woodpeckers fly in
and eat when they can and when they go
they’re gone
and it doesn’t feel like Christmas
or hope or belief or even joy
will stick around for long
once they’re gone for good
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