cavity

the pileated cuts the heartwood,
leaves the cavity, dies or moves on.

the chickadee finds it the next spring,
lines the hole with moss and the fur

she pulls from fox scat. raises six.
the screech owl uses it the year after,

swallows the mice whole. then the flying
squirrel. then the bumblebee. then

a winter of nothing. then a wren.
the bird that made the door is the only

one who won’t return. the rest of them
are tenants of an absence they did not

learn to make.