Longest Day, J.S. Absher (December 2025)

Longest Day

Rosefinch on the wire greeting dawn,

the town below, the hills beyond

spread before me through a window

of the home I left years ago:

your kind came here after I’d gone,

finch from the west, and settled down

in the place I’d flown from elsewhere bound

without a target, errant arrow.

     Rosefinch on the wire,

a dying has brought me back to town

at summer solstice: time spins us round.

At 8 the yardman starts to mow.

Heat is rising. Blackberries glow.

Fly to the feast, eat your pound,

     rosefinch on the wire.

The house finch, a member of the rosefinch genus, is a native of the Western US and Mexico. It escaped from pet shops in the 60s and slowly spread across the eastern US. It first appeared in North Carolina in the late 60s, and a decade later it was found all over the state. I remember first seeing it in my hometown maybe 30 years ago.