Catbird

This catbird, inches outside,
in full view to me, but hidden in the holly
from another perspective,
keeps darting from phrase to phrase
until its stream of unconsciousness
brings my mother to mind,

as if the catbird is only here to remind me
how I’d put her on speaker
and continue with whatever I was doing—
washing dishes or folding laundry,
even reading a magazine—
saying nothing more than yeah when she asked
if I was still there.

I was, and now she’s not,
except for this catbird’s late reminder
of her phone calls’
non-stop, unpunctuated, effervescing talk.

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Robert Cording’s tenth book of poems, In the Unwalled City, is forthcoming from Slant in 2022.  New poems are out or forthcoming in The Common, Southern Review, The Hudson Review, The Sun, 32 Poems, AGNI.