Sunshine Symphony

Robert Allen

May 4, 2025

The cat asks to go outside.

He’s an indoor cat.

I can’t let him wander on his own.

He has to be supervised.

I pick him up and take him out

to the redwood table on our deck.

He begins to scratch,

to sharpen his claws,

then lies down to soak up the sun.

His white fur seems to glisten,

not really, but it retains the mark

of my hand and fingers as I stroke

his long body, now stretched out

in pure, feline luxuriation.

He makes me stop and wait.

He looks up, I look up.

A woodpecker is in the tree

high over our heads,

carefully pecking along

the rough bark for bugs,

occasionally hammering the trunk

in firm woodpecker fashion.

Another bird sings in the distance,

a high-pitched trill, a pattern

repeated over and over.

An airplane flies across the sky.

I think it will blot out all other sound,

but it doesn’t.

A dog barks. A different dog barks.

I swear I can hear someone

playing the piano, but it’s not

a regular piano. It’s electronic,

more like an organ.

A wind chime tinkles nearby.

A bird chirps, an ordinary

but persistent sound.

A dove calls out, that deep

beautiful, mournful call,

rhythmic, going in and out,

growing louder, then softer.

Another plane flies over.

A different bird calls,

this one chattering,

a raspy sound, as if bothered,

angry about something, who knows?

What is that constant rumbling

in the distance? A car

from the next street over?

I don’t think so. Earlier this morning

workers were grinding a fallen tree

from the ditch behind our house

into their wood chipping machine.

Have they started back to work

after lunch? Possibly.

I notice the piano, again.

The wind chime, again.

Is that a fifth kind of bird?

The woodpecker has disappeared.

The cat seems content, his fur warm.

I pick him up, unwilling

to go back inside.

Robert Allen lives in San Antonio with his wife, two children, one cat, and five antique clocks. His poems have appeared in Voices de la Luna, the Texas Poetry Calendar, di-verse-city, and TPA. He loves cardio-boxing, hates throwing things away, and facilitates the in-person Open Writers Lab at Gemini Ink.



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