BIRD’S NEST

To find a bird’s nest where a wasp’s nest had been

Reversed the order of things.

Where a bird’s nest had been the year before,

A wasp’s nest had been built after a snake

Crawled up the porch post and found the eggs in

A corner next to the ceiling. 

The mother bird sat on the railing below the nest

For a week or so, not singing, but

Making a loud bird noise.

The wasps had their mythical chimera, too;

A giant two-legged, two-armed, one-segmented torso

And head brandished a broom stick and felled their paper nest at dusk,

Sweeping it from the porch to the ground.

The wasps returned and quietly

Rebuilt their large paper comb

Out of mandible-chewed wood pulp.

Rocky ledges, treetop aeries, eaves,

Earthen mounds, flat lands, and beaches lure

Nest builders with a ritual numerical chant:

Some will survive against all odds.

All others don’t.

And the mother bird sits on the sidewalk next to the

Bird’s nest where the wasp’s nest had been and

Makes a loud bird noise.

© cmheuer, 2013