Waiting for Western Tanagers

Western Tanager, colored pencil and graphite on plant print (grape leaves, silver dollar eucalyptus leaves)

The birds seem certain that spring is coming. They are moving through my little town in unexpected flashes of wings I haven’t seen in months, or perhaps more than a year. Surely, as with every year, they passed through in that strange March when everything changed. If they did, I was huddled inside more attuned to my television than birdsong. I wouldn’t have known. It is time to step outside and remember. It is time for so many things to begin again. And I am ready.