Nest

Who does not enjoy finding one of these? The excitement and the simultaneous step back, as if to protect.

What I first learned about bird nests I learned in childhood, when I reported to my mother what I saw in a maple tree at 37th and Laburnum on my way to school, and below it a piece of robin's egg, which is the most beautiful blue, particularly in the morning light of April. I told her how I returned the shell to the nest and saw babies in there.

"Did you touch one of them?" my mother asked.

I wanted to prove myself adventurous, so I lied and said I did.

"That's too bad," she said, "because the mother will reject it."