After logging of the public computer last evening, and saying goodnight to Mudcat,
I walked out of the library to the parked car in the lot.
The parking lot, a spacious one, is near a ditch and a patch of woods, in an low-lying region where there are marshes and wetlands nearby.

Thus, the little things that make noise in the evening.
Any time now there will be spring peepers.
But last night there were no peepers yet.
Just one very quizzical-sounding bird call, couldn't place the bird;
but the pitch of the bird call goes "up?" .
Sounded in a way like the bird was calling
"anybody out there?"
"anybody out there?"

Soon enough the peepers will be peeping so loudly
that the quizzical bird call will be drowned out altogether.

It's been a long harsh winter,
and this is our first proper thaw.
Bare trees, and great heaps of frozen dirty snow.
How quickly all of that can change.