North Carolina,

mid-winter,

mid morning,

Carolina blue sky,

a gentle cold in the air.

I sit, still and quiet

among the just filled bird-feeders

in my back yard.

Sitting motionless in the crispness

is a cheap price to pay

for the show.

The finches, sparrows, chickadees, nuthatch

flit round the perches

snatching and pecking

their second breakfast

before their first lunch.

Then,

for the lovely, sweet icing on my cake,

my wife,

still nude from our nights sleep

and early morning loving

inches open the curtains

hanging over our bedrooms

picture window.

She stands there,

smiling.

She waves to me.

Her breasts, draped in linen.

She blows me a kiss,

a thanks for what was,

a hint of what will come again.

What more of paradise

does any mortal need?

I rise.