July 19th, 2026
Deborah Rasmussen
The Perfect Time to Add a Bird to Your Life List
is sunrise today, the perfect place here, alone
at the nature center on a worn woodchip trail
that will bustle later with people & their pets.
Birds will be distant then, hidden in the tangle
of bare branches overhead or safe in limp grass
along a stream still sleepy with winter, but now
you hear them nearby, unexpectedly spot one
you’ve never seen before & log the moment
in ink – Blackpoll Warbler, date-time-place –
for no other reason than it happened, a hope
come true, like the moments you record daily
at the hospital as he heals from surgery, how
yesterday he walked a little farther, ate better,
smiled more, even laughed once, cautiously,
pillow pressed hard against pain, yet notable
as a Blackpoll Warbler posing in plain sight
while all around you, hard at work, almost
unnoticed, waking trees unfurl a new spring.
Deborah Rasmussen retired from her nursing career in Florida to Duluth, MN, where she enjoys the welcoming community of poets and the stunning natural setting. Her poetry has appeared in various journals including The Thunderbird Review, Barstow & Grand, The Talking Stick, Rattle Poets Respond® and in a variety of anthologies. Her stories for children have appeared in Highlights for Children, Cricket and Chicken Soup for the Kid’s Soul. Rasmussen’s first chapbook of poems was released in July, 2025, by Finishing Line Press.
The Nemadji Review 