Recoveries

On the roof of the shed, 
under a bough bending with leaves, 
one of the neighborhood cats likes 
to stretch out in the middle of the day.

*

Once when we came home, 
we saw another nest flung from 
the high pine—night herons 
pummeled by wind.

.*

Even the ghosts of cicadas are tenacious—
the shells they left behind as they pushed
their new bodies out remain 
hooked to leaves.