Pastoral as Complaint

           The robin is so quarrelsome. He barks to no one in the trees;
he fluffs his body twice its size and rattles in the leaves.
           He doesn’t know or won’t accept the nest is empty now,
the eggs a tatter on the ground. The storm was quick,
           we didn’t see it come; no sound above the hum

a summer morning makes when god is in his place
           and we are free of tragedies that pile up along the way. 
The robin is so quarrelsome;
           he thinks his life is gone just like the nest,
but he’s like the rest of us, it’s only just begun.