Robins After Ida

Thomas Quitzau

December 6, 2021

Stony Brook, New York

I know it’s kind o’ cliché to say,

but they literally came in droves,

like, I mean there was a ginormous

number of robins pecking away

at something in the dirt in the ditch,

and it was no coinkidink since the sand,

which had run down the paths and 

settled all in the same spot, the low point,

created perfect conditions after Hurricane Ida

(I’d have thought I’d escaped these dad-burned 

storms that nearly engulfed me in Texas, but 

they’re following me up here) which forced us

to have to muck out our basement, picking 

at bugs in dirt and all kinds of goodies,

just like robins do.

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.