In Washington’s Woodlands
by Dan Brady

I come home from work and again 
destroy the nest the birds 
spent the day building on the porch. 
My house is not your house, birds. 
Down the hill on the fields  
On Four Mile Run a bat cracks  
and a crowd raises its voice.  
The robins nearby don’t flinch; 
just stare, then depart.  
As I close the door, leaving it unlocked, 
I feel the other world behind me, 
bright and soggy after two days of rain 
growing into something new. 
I haven’t yet cleaned the dishes 
from breakfast this morning 
and the whole house smells 
of strawberries, of home. 
In this way the morning greets the night. 
In this way, each day, today continues into tomorrow.

Dan Brady is the author of the poetry collections Strange Children and Subtexts and two chapbooks, Cabin Fever / Fossil Record and Leroy Sequences. He is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse, a magazine and small press based in Washington, DC. Learn more at danbrady.org.

Written in Arlington / Spoken in Arlington is a print and digital collection of the poets and poems of Arlington, VA, edited by Katherine E. Young and published by Paycock Press (forthcoming, fall 2020). It is supported in part by Arlington County through the Arlington Cultural Affairs division of Arlington Economic Development and the Arlington Commission for the Arts. For more information, visit Arlington Arts.

Image: After the Rain mixed media/collage on canvas by Anya Getter (fragment)