Ronnie Hess: "Birthday Party"

Bought my own carrot cake with vegan frosting,

put raspberries and carob chips on it along with two candles,

one for last year and one for the next, gathered friends

to talk about old times, lit the candles and sang to myself.

While I was singing, I wondered if it was odd

to orchestrate my own party. A few days before,

after the test had come back negative, I opened the windows

and heard the wren for the first time, its crazy chatter,

how its sound followed me around the house.

I told myself I could be like the bird,

the garden’s flutterer, standing on tree branches,

fence posts, high water spigots, singing its heart out.

Yes, I would be that speckled bird, the resolute flier,

unalterably happy.

"Birthday Party" by Ronnie Hess, from A Woman in Vegetable (Kattywompus Press, 2015). Presented here by poet submission.

Art credit: "Marsh Wren," photograph by Arman Werth.