Home at Dusk

I went out in fading light
for one last walk around the field
to see the golden strands
of this winter day

What I found was homecoming,
ditch gurgling
on its way to the river
flowing past the cottonwoods
that lined its banks,
the trees’ thick bark deep-grooved
home for beetles and,
outlined in silhouette,
a woodpecker with its sharp bill

High above, wave after wave
of starlings and grackles
two hundred at a time
their black wings working
up and down
aiming for the bare grove of trees
from whose branches rose
chirps, trills
bedtime stories coming back to roost

bright streaks of cloud faded to pearl
as sandhill cranes croaked hoarse calls
soared overhead
hardly flapping
floated in
to settle on the next field
before evensong

Turning toward home
as night fell
I saw through the window
the lamp’s warm glow




-Sarah Kotchian

Kotchian’s Light of Wings, published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2024, was a poetry finalist for the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award.  Her poetry book Camino received the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award and Seven Sisters Book Award. She is a past Breadloaf contributor and a Pushcart nominee.