Autumn Chore
by James Crews
I stood there poking with a stick
at one of the mouse nests
we had cleaned out of a corner
of the house, where my husband
had torn off several boards
and was now spraying foam
in all the open spaces
so no other animals could
slip inside the walls and wake us
with their nightly gnawing.
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The nests were small
but intricately woven with bits
of scavenged insulation, cloth,
and the softest strands
of grass the mice could find.
Finished with our chore
on the last warm day before a storm,
we left the nests on the ground
where they would soon return to earth.
But I kept thinking: if only
we could take such good care
of each other, make of each day
a warm, safe place to stay.
If only we could be that gentle,
that soft with ourselves.
James Crews’ work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New Republic, as well as on Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry newspaper column. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Writing & Literature from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is the author of four collections of award-winning poetry, including The Book of What Stays (Prairie Schooner Prize and Foreword Book of the Year Citation, 2011), Telling My Father (Cowles Prize, 2017), Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of several anthologies of poetry: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection; and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. He leads Mindfulness & Writing retreats online and throughout the country, and works as a creative coach with groups and individuals. He lives with his husband, Brad Peacock, in Shaftsbury, Vermont.
*This poem has been published here with permission granted by James Crews.
