L. Bellee Jones-Pierce
Early May
The robins are late this year. I thought they’d never nest. Their piles of sticks and
grass, dirtied cobweb nets, waxed and waned like a moon at the corner of our porch,
growing and then blowing off the slats and into the gravel with the wind. More than a
month since they began, the birds take turns warming eggs. Finally. The plump one—
the one I see most—will stay when I come outside, watchful while the lock jangles. I
wonder where the other goes when it startles, sudden wings and sound. Small things
devastate me, too. A penny on the sidewalk. Jagged eggshells. Kitchen scissors
through my toddler’s hair.
L. Bellee Jones-Pierce is an Assistant Professor of English at Centenary College of Louisiana whose primary research areas are early modern literature, disability, and poetics. Her work has appeared in RHINO Poetry, The Journal, phoebe, Susurrus, Doubleback Review, Wordgathering, Chartreuse Lit, and other journals. She serves as an associate poetry editor for Arcturus.