The grackles have returned! I said,
But the winter stayed too long;
I meant to be glad when the grackles came,
and robins red,
with robin-song,
but now they’ve come, I feel no change,
the winter stayed so long.

Alexander Bloom is an adjunct professor and the author of two chapbooks, The Frosted Bums of Denver CO, and Meanderton. He was raised in Miami but has since built his life in New England. His works have recently appeared in AGNI, The Nation, and Granta.