Friday poetry challenge: Plenty of nothing

You don't have to write good poetry, I tell myself. There's already more good poetry published than you'll ever get a chance to read. 

I'm giving myself a little pep talk: You're not doing this for a grade. There is literally nothing at stake except a promise that you made to yourself. You're not going to stand over the keyboard threatening to slap your own hand with a ruler if you can't produce a little Friday poetry.

But I've got no motivation, no inspiration, not the least thread of an idea worth wrapping words around. I survived four days of meetings this week, dealt gracefully with some unreasonable people, cooked some decent meals, paid some bills, read a book, and failed to find a glossy ibis.

The ibis, a rare visitor to this area, was reported by the local birding group. I read the ibis alert while sitting not eight feet from a photograph I took of a glossy ibis at a wetland in Florida, proof positive that I have seen glossy ibises in person, but if a glossy ibis makes a pit stop at a wetland within an hour's drive of my house, I can't help it: I want to go and see. 

But I couldn't go just then (rain) and then I had more meetings the next day, but yesterday--more than 36 hours after the ibis report--my longsuffering husband agreed to take us on an ibis hunt. Directions were incomplete and GPS was not helpful, but we found the pond, as advertised, right next to the Hallelujah Barn. 

Alas, no ibis. So maybe the high point of my week was going on a long drive in the countryside to see an absence of ibis.

Pond without ibis,

poem without thought,

day with no meetings--

hurrah for what's not.

(And that's all I've got.)

Okay, your turn: wrap some words around a big ol' wad of nothing.

(Hat tip to my adorable daughter, who told me that if I have nothing to write about, I should write about nothing.)