Jim Tilley: “A Battle of Wills”
A BATTLE OF WILLS
Every spring, the robins, returning
from their winter away, build their nurseries
on the rafters beneath our deck, and we
use long poles and tall ladders to sweep
them away. Not easily deterred, they start
afresh with twigs, grass, and earth.
Again and again. But this year I realized
that I don’t have an issue with having them
where they want to be. It is far enough
from the table on the terrace below where
we often take our lunch salads and lemonade.
I like to hear them greet the day with song.
And they won’t stay long, abandoning
the spot once their young can fly. It’s never
been between the robins and me; my wife
wants the creatures gone, and it’s the battle
with myself whether to do her bidding.
Sure, these robins are more than metaphor,
but they stand for something, don’t they?
Breaking their tiny blue eggs last year,
blood on our hands, should have ended it all.
Jim Tilley has published three full-length collections of poetry and a novel with Red Hen Press. His short memoir, The Elegant Solution, was published as a Ploughshares Solo. He has won Sycamore Review’s Wabash Prize for Poetry.