Our host today is former high school English teacher, Kate Sjostrom , a teacher educator at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Writer in Residence at the Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park.
You can read Kate’s full prompt here as she inspires us to write about emotions in concrete and abstract terms.
Elation Over the Song of the Wood Thrush
it’s 6:38 a.m. when I hear it
we’ve just taken the boys out
to do their morning business
when a familiar note plays
from the branch-pew of a tree
on Pine Mountain
like a retro diner Jukebox favorite
a song to stir the heart
not call-like,
not chatty or operatic
definitely not theatric
(like that one lady in church,
thinks she can sing)
still, this voice offers hymn
praise to its maker and in
that way they are alike
this voice isn’t
wearing colorful Gucci garments –
picture instead
a simple watercolor painting of
dark, milk, and white chocolates
splotched with dots
and caramel feathers
the star voice of the woods
and doesn’t even know it
doesn’t show off or sing louder
like I would do with a voice
like that ~ why would I
ever say anything?
I’d sing it all, asking where the
tomatoes are in the grocery store
and what is my balance
at the bank and I’d be the
talk of the town for all the
wrong reasons ~ folks
would say I’ve gone off
the deep end
……but if I were a bird
I’d hope to be a Wood Thrush
the best voice in the choir
so humble
so unassuming
so musical
turning heads
with elation just to listen
and even sour Simon
Cowell would look up
and smile, knowing
there’s the talent
and press the Golden Buzzer
but with my Wood Thrush ways
I’d shun the competition
not needing his endorsement
I’d crap on his head
my own golden buzzer
on my way to another branch
still singing
Common Threads 