An etheree for Colleen’s weekly challenge. This woodpecker is part of our evening ritual, watching out for her/him to come back to the dead tree to roost, the hare to come up from the stream bank to browse, and the blackbird to roost in the lime tree outside the window.

In the hollow tree a bird, an old nest

with memories draws her back before

the sun sets. The comforting dark

echoes with cries of fledglings,

flown when summer still filled

the air feather-soft,

warm as a bird

mother’s breast.

She calls­—

silence.