Today Jackson told me the bird was
a red shimmer, which, I thought,
couldn't be right.
(To be honest, he is often - like me -
confidently and profoundly wrong
about any number of things,
sometimes on purpose just for fun.
In first grade he claimed that
Einstein discovered the North Pole;
I told my kindergarten teacher that
seals didn't have teeth.)
But when I found the bird was
just a regular house finch,
I decided it was true.
Sometimes rosy-cheeked wingéd beasts
catch the light in such a way
that things can be better
if we will them to be.
This was written as part of National Poetry Writing Month 2021.