So What's With The Late Ones? - Feb 27 2026

 

So What’s With The Late Ones?

Feb 27 2026

So what’s with the late ones?

Because if it’s the early bird who catches the worm

why aren’t they all?

Perhaps they prefer sleeping in

after late nights

raiding the feeder.

Perhaps there are dilatory worms

who are partial to dusk,

and in the end catch their share.

Or could insects and berries

be just as good?

As a nocturnal person

I resent the implication

of the virtuous early riser,

and as a poet

resent the cheap rhyme.

After all

bird goes just as well dirge, scourge, and spurned;

surely a clever poet

could come up with a more nuanced type

than this earnest avian

hard at work

in the dark before dawn.

 

In my version

the bird getting her beauty sleep

is the more interesting one.

She will wait for rain,

then gorge

on a buffet of worms

forced to the surface.

The sin of pride

and then of gluttony.

A Sunday morning bird

at the all-you-can-eat brunch,

hungover

from the night before.

While the early bird is at church,

installed

on the hard wooden seat

of her straight-backed pew.

And as the preacher drones on

in the soporific voice

of no-nonsense piety 

she shifts and squirms,

trying hard to think up sins

she can convincingly confess.

Another day in the mood to write, but nothing urgent to say.  Who knows why this dumb cliché crossed my mind as I cast around for a spark. But it did, and I thought it would be fun to noodle around with. Seemed especially suitable after having collapsed into an exhausted sleep the night before, only to end up being out for almost 12 hours! 

(Btw, there’s no need to be so early after all. Cursory research reveals that “earthworms are most likely to surface when it is dark, wet, and mild rather than dry, bright, or very cold.” So dusk is as good as dawn, and rain is well worth waiting for.)