Hibernation

1.
They live near food
pecans and black walnuts
their little mouths must be hideous, black,
intestines tanned
from bitter shells, picked and chewed
to reach the sweet meat

winter nests,
knots in the branches
We cut one down, once
an overcoat of string and sticks
not like a burrow
the squirrel is the nest

Her needle biopsy report
says it’s just leaves and twigs
the nest is marked
with a speck of titanium
to be forgotten
when the tree is flush and green.