two appeared one time

but we don’t see them again

we’re hoping they were visitors

enroute to somewhere else

for our perennial pair it would be

a bit cold and chill rainy yet

to start the ritual of months

of sitting on eggs and flying off

to gather food for insatiable

wide mouths and growing flight feathers and the terror of first leap

in hopes that awkward, untested wings will sustain the next generation

and set weary parents free

until the next spring