Robin

Robin

Alicia A. McCartney

We questioned her wisdom at first.
The third-floor ledge slanted
to pour the water off.

But mud buttressed the project
as she leaned into each new twig,
her whole body contorting in instinctual dance.

Godparents through one-way glass,
in curious shyness we watched
each egg displace the others into a new pattern.

Her full-feathered breast gave them warmth,
turned them over lovingly.
We said it was a doomed project.

She built, oblivious to our speculations,
sheltering embryonic worlds with her soft body
until they disappeared.

---

Alicia A. McCartney
Professor & Writer

Alicia lives with her husband and daughter in southwestern Ohio, where she writes and works as a professor of English literature. She holds a B.A. in Journalism: Classical Liberal Arts from Patrick Henry College and a Ph.D. in English from Baylor University.

Photography by Aleksi Partanen