Instead of Writing a Poem

Posted on by millietullis

by Susan Robertson

I visited my friend.
We sat on her deck

under the trees
drinking coffee.

A jay jayed—

(I didn’t feel 
the lack of a poem)

then the shrill-
sharp notes 

of a bird 
we couldn’t name.

::

Susan Robertson grew up outside Washington, D.C., but has made her home in Canada for years. Her poems have appeared in journals in Canada and the United States, most recently in Prairie Fire, Parentheses, the Offing, Grain, and EcoTheo Review.

Image: Annie Spratt

ID: white mug of coffee on a wooden table.