A red-capped woodpecker jabs
his insistent beak into the birdfeeder outside
my kitchen window, taking what he needs
from what he finds, and what spills
to grass and weeds may sprout
in spring and bloom.
A longtime newspaperman, Brian Kates holds a Pulitzer Prize, George Polk Award, and Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting. His book, "The Murder of a Shopping Bag Lady," which chronicles the rise of American homelessness through the story of a homeless woman slain on the streets of New York, was a finalist for Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award in non-fiction. Recent poetry has appeared in Third Wednesday, Common Ground Review, Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere. He lives with his wife in a house in the woods in the lower Hudson Valley.
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