[mou] Rhapsody in Red (a poem about not shooting cardinals)

[Alt, Mark]

My screen door creaks open - seventeen below
A sound effect from a Vincent Price show
Footsteps crunch loudly in new-fallen snow
Car engine turns over, barely working, so slow

My car is now warming; I clean windshield and mirror
A faint warbling birdsong finds way to my ear
A cardinal proclaiming "what-what-what-what cheer!"
Something's not right, why he calls is unclear

I listen and wonder, I stand very still
Is it a warning instead "Wind-wind-wind-wind chill?"
The clarion call from the red bird's red bill
Is it intuition or sheer power of will?
=20





Mark Alt
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Project Resources Group
Best Buy Co., Inc.