Ya think?

Take heart, you tell yourself,
The cardinals are back,
Nesting in the very top of the old yew tree,
The same as always.

But you know that's wrong-
Not the same as always.
Birds don't live 20 or 30 years,
Do they?

Maybe the children of the children
Of the original pair of birds.
Do they return generation by generation
To nest in the family tree of their ancestors?

I hear that cardinals don't migrate.
They stay through the cold weather.
Could  it be they find winter refuge
Deep in the branches of the nesting tree.

Even the yew tree has changed with the years
Some branches gone, others bent and twisted.
But we like to think that all is the same
That the past  is subsumed by the present.
          And thus we go on with life.