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Killdeer
Jennifer Campbell

Are they pretty? you ask.
Yes and No John and I answer
in unison. I defer to him, since he
has a good thirty years on me,
and considers himself not just a poet
but a birder too.

Shorebirds who don’t rely too much
on the guarantee of water,
Killdeer are respectable seekers,
poised on delicate legs
to peer and run through open fields
for their own good reasons.

I resented their noise
early mornings in the new build,
sharp cheeps a constant question:
Hey there! Do you belong?
My childish attraction to bright colors—
to flash over the drab of work

and resilience—no longer makes
a good argument. Like me, they will
protect their kin, make a show of weakness
to distract, and persevere
from season to season.
They are beautiful,
John insists, and I see it too.

—
Jennifer Campbell is a writing professor in Buffalo, NY, and a co-editor of Earth’s Daughters. Her most recent book, What Came First (Dancing Girl Press), contains reconstituted fairytale poems. Jennifer’s work has recently appeared in Slipstream, The Healing Muse, ArLiJo, and American Journal of Nursing.

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