The Covid 19 pandemic is isolating Alaskan writers. We can no longer attend workshops or public readings. The coffee bars where we met with other writers are closed. To bridge these physical gaps, 49 Writers is providing this on-line forum for Alaskans writing the distance. Today, Doug Capra provides poem and photograph.
The Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds don’t seem to notice I stay
at home these days. I hang their feeders low
to watch them hover, sip and spin away.
They come and go in turn as if they know
the world still spins and circles round the sun,
that time is short and flowers still will grow.
Their life’s a fragile web with effort won.
In ignorance they neither sow nor reap
but flourish and survive in debt to none.
In dreams the hummingbirds invade my sleep,
defend their territory in the fray.
They make me want to pray or laugh or weep.
The birds don’t seem to notice anyway.
It doesn’t seem to matter where I stay.
Doug Capra lives in Seward. He is the author of The Spaces Between: Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords.