cedar rust in the country come spring
written Spring 2021 while stuck in my hometown in southern Virginia, during a pandemic, falling apart
clinging like a little parasite
a small brain many brains
leeched all over that one would think
think that maybe
maybe this is a tree full of nuts
nuts out of season
little brains cling bounce when
robins land fighting now
cause warmer weather pushing out pollen
has them fussing on who mates
who mates with who
the brain-y ornaments siphon and suck
grasp any leaf or branch
forming their own bark
hard and last month
ice had them hanging low heavy
as pollen drifts from the evergreen
branches of their host
to my eyes and nose, itchy red
bits of them shift
they are Robin’s furniture
and the apples
the apples that got plopped here
get slapped with brainy-ed scabs
on fruit and bark and branch growth
From the nutty brain things soon to be orange goop
while the robins pull worms
out of hard shells and wet grass
bouncing, a gun shot
Cedar rust in the southern country come spring