Cardinals

Should you, waking,
sweater on and in socks
at the sink for water
see a cardinal in snowed

bush, you live in Carolina.
The fortune is fact
of residence—attention
occurring, unfocused.

You want to be some
brightness in thickets
and you are red, red
cardinal.

Anything remaining
in there, thicket of
twig poplar, business
fences, flecking of

snow, smear from
wiped fog on glass?
The red, crimson
cannot be affected,

or dyed in.
Character,
purest function
impels one to be

black and red
brindle-beaked,
sit among pallor,
berry of a holly tree.