This is based on a true story. In 2010, I was extremely ill with pneumonia from H1N1. I was in the VA for two weeks. I came home no better because I was so powerless and couldn’t get out of bed. I got an encouraging kick out of a cardinal dancing up and down outside my window. He wanted me to get up and put a peanut on my sill. This is a rework of my poem High Note, more accurate to the actual event.

Red

We like to think that we’re in control.
Sleeping pneumonia had tied me to bed.
Resentment took over, controlling my soul.

“I want my life back, my get-up and go.”
Powerlessness tricked me. I wished I were dead.
Raging frustration had taken control.

“Let me die now. Fling me in a hole.”
A cardinal flew by with a bright flash of red.
While whining, self-pity darkened my soul.

Perched outside, he chirped his “phweet” role.
“phweet phweet,” he demanded, flicking his head.
The jester chirped on, uplifting my soul.

At his good pleasure, he readied to go,
phweet-phweeted his “goodbye,” and off, he sped,
Red chirped me his tweet: GOD IS IN CONTROL.

Brian Hodgkinson Jr. 2010/2021