Sassan Tabatabai
Spring in Griggs Park

The helmeted woodpecker
single-minded
in its mission
to penetrate
the armored bark
raps its percussion
on the trunk
of the sturdy oak.

The territorial blue jay
                — a Herod cloaked in violet —
screeches its authority
at the crimson-breasted robin
who thinks of nothing
but the blind earthen worm
                carelessly sticking its head
out of the cool mud.

In pursuit of his mate
the fiery cardinal
streaks across the blue sky
like a blazing comet.
The pair disappear together
into the drape of tender green
that hangs from the willow.

The mourning dove
sighs its melancholy song
for any who listen.

The industrious squirrel
busy with its gatherings
ignores them all.

                They know nothing
                of social distancing.

They avoid
the two-legged creature
by instinct.

                        — Brookline, Massachusetts

------------------------------------------------------------------
This poem appears simultaneously in the Spring 2021 issue of The Journal of the Core Curriculum, an annual campus anthology published at Boston University.

<< return to the Table of Contents for New Series #11: Summer 2021, Volume 6 Number 1