January 2021
Donna Hilbert
donnahilbert@gmail.com / www.donnahilbert.com
Bio Note: If I can glean a gift from the misery of 2020, it is in feeling closer to the place I make my home. I am learning the habits of the creatures I live among. There is much to love here, and much to mourn. "Dirge" is a part of my manuscript-in-progress.

Dirge

Here I am, standing under palm trees
listening to Great Blue Herons sing 
a song like machinery grinding.

Yesterday, arborists sent by the city
knocked hatchlings to their death
in a frenzy of cutting and stashing 
fronds, and birds, into dumpsters.

Did they know that herons mate
for the season, and return each spring
to the same trees to build their nests again? 

In this spring of staying home, 
I have watched the heron’s industry, 
carrying sticks from beach to tree 
and back for more, building in tall palms. 

The song in the tree is not the song in the sky. 
Not every voice in the choir rejoices.
First published in The Gatherings project to raise money for artists impacted by Covid 19.
©2021 Donna Hilbert
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