In a Post-9/11 World

When I was born, Gila woodpeckers hacked their boots into saguaros like any other day.
When saguaros die, their skeletons splay and soon the scar tissue sac is all that's left.
A percussive to a child, a literal boot to try to fit and crack,
learn woody scars crack, and somehow later forget.

Feel our boots inside, our framework that either slowly erodes or all at once goes.
We all leave no matter how craftily we tear our homes into watery flesh,
our legacy in memory towers.
Symbols solidify & the wrens move in;
edify & pink eggs with brown spots;
crumble & I throw a sulfur rock at a wren's protruding head
that's watching Gila carve below.



Cool Facts

* The Cactus Wren is an active mobber of nest predators. A pair was observed attacking a Yuma antelope squirrel so vigorously that the squirrel became impaled on the thorns of a cactus called the cholla. The wrens continued to peck the squirrel until it was knocked to the ground where it escaped.

* The Cactus Wren destroys the nests of other bird species, pecking or removing their eggs, and can lower the breeding density of Verdins (another desert bird).

* Cold desert nights may have more of an impact on the success of Cactus Wren breeding than extremely hot daytime temperature.