Rose Rant - nut hatch

Attention to Detail 
By Rose Poirot

I wash windows when I need to focus,

Staring at my reflection in the streak-free surface—

Or iron a long-sleeved cotton shirt,

Inhaling its body-scented steam.

Attention to detail: a resume cliché,

But I understand it

So it’s always a bullet point on my cv.

A nut hatch

Hammering at the cedar siding

Of this ocean retreat:

That bird-brain knows

Attention to detail

Like no human’s ever will.

I listen to its rata-tat-tat

For hours each day: it’s March—nest-building time

On the California coast—

While off to one side, safe in his Monterey pine,

A crow sounds his defiant caw-caw-caw

Disparaging the industry of the much-smaller bird.

I feel my own focus losing itself.

So many fleeting ideas

Like dreams that dissolve upon waking.

“Job-shadow the nut hatch”

Could be my new objective.

March 20, 2010 cc

Gordon et.al.