A crow calls,
celebrating the morning.
I tap my Merlin app to chronicle
the answered greetings of
the chestnut-backed Chickadees.

Soon others are joining in song:
a Stellar’s Jay, a Brown Creeper,
now the barn swallows and a
red crossbill.
These are not my desert birds.

I drink in my coffee and peer up
through the branches
of the towering firs,
into the cloudless blue sky.
I feel untethered, free.

The wind rustles the leaves,
dogs bark today’s messages and
far-away voices catch in the breeze.
In the distance, I can hear the waves:
the ocean beckons.