“Eastern Chipmunk” — C.Birde, 8/19
Castanet
R a T t L e..
Dash
& dart…
Chipmunk
departs,
cheeks full
of
peanuts.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Percussion — An Image
Month: August 2019
Dissonance — A Poem
“Seedhead” — C.Birde, 8/19
Mumps
at seven;
chronic
childhood
ear infections;
concussions,
(three)
ages eleven, twelve,
and eighteen
(vault,
softball,
and fist,
respectively.)
A head that
brightly rings
in ceaseless,
multi-tiered,
soprano chorus
similar to
(utterly
different
than)
the pulsing
insect trill
of fading
August.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Sip — An Image
“Lonicera” — C.Birde, 8/19
Those
slender tubes
that no lips
redden,
tempt &
sweeten
the slim,
forked tongues
of visiting
sprites.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Eidolon — A Poem
“Eidolon” — C.Birde, 8/19
I knew
you were there
for the air
parted
at my ear,
unzipped at
fifty-three strokes
per second;
for the hum and
echo
of absence
when I turned
to look
and saw only
honey-
suckle.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Haunts — A Dream
“Haunt” — C.Birde, 8/19
The night is longest when it is sleepless,
the mind crowded with haunts and fury
draped in dark shadow and ominous
as the ghosts of futures-yet-to-be
that point bone-white fingers
from dream’s dark corner and
leave one breathless,
tongueless,
voiceless,
hopeless
to cry out at the mounting pressure
and injustice of storms and heat
and glaciers’ retreat and rising tides
and seas blooming plastic
and forests denuded and deprived
of creatures great and small,
and all all all
rewritten and twisted and undone
in service to short-term metrics
that measure life elemental
against gains —
immediate,
concrete —
of dollars and cents
as if a blue-green shiny new earth
might be bought and sold and regrown
by stocks and bonds and war and walls
and oil and coal alone. . .
The night is longest when it is sleepless,
interrupted by dreams of ink-writ
skeletal wraiths that inhale
one’s choked-silent pleas of
“There!
Right there!
Does no one
see?”
— C.Birde, 8/19
Tumble — An Image
“Tumble” — C.Birde, 8/19
He staggered.
The bees’ hummm…
The blooms’ slow sway
&
soft-tumbled scent
left
him
g i d d y.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Crow’s Call — A Poem
“Crow” — C.Birde, 8/19
Forlorn pulse
of sound,
two notes —
alone —
on repeat loop,
struck against
a summer sky,
gray and weighted
with rain
unshed.
I carry –
close,
close –
crescent slips
of your dark
new moon
song.
Oh,
lonesome crow,
I hear
you.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Betwixt — A Dream
“Betwixt” — C.Birde, 8/19
Both here
and there,
without and
within –
the separation obscured
by lace-edged ferns and
tree limbs’curious,
leaf-fingered
reach;
by ivies’ slow
curling growth
up the slim, inarguable
certainty of even-spaced
moss-tarnished,
bars.
Easy
as idle breeze,
careless
as wish.
Encircling spokes
sweep aloft and out of sight,
beyond the guardian-
ship of trees –
one story,
two stories,
three –
a slow curvature
chased,
traced,
defined
by a staircase of
weightless, spiral
filigree.
Within, without;
without,
within…
Come in,
come in.
Don’t hesitate.
Pull back the narrow,
decorative gate–
coil-spring hinges
announce each rare
visitor —
and cross the dip
and swell of moss-
carpeted
floor.
A central table blooms
an invitation of china
cups and saucers;
tea-pot, steaming;
a plate of
cake.
Clear a space.
Pull out a chair.
Sit and stay and linger,
breathing,
safely embraced and
enclosed neither here
nor there; without
or within;
both betwixt
and
between.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Pegasus — An Image
“Pegasus” — C.Birde, 8/19
Hold tight
that singular steed’s
wind-swept,
wild mane,
and,
like Perseus,
r i d e.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Enervation — A Poem
“Curbside Enervation” — C.Birde, 8/19
Tempers
and thermals
and solar flares.
Blare of horns
and blacktop’s
creaking heat.
Painted lines
and lines of cars
comprise a gridlock
of intent –
steel and chrome,
flesh and bone;
dismissed,
ignored,
unseen.
Melting
curbside mirage,
dressed in heat-
stirred floral cotton,
she slowly bastes
and enervates
and waits
to cross
the street.
— C.Birde, 8/19
Nightjars & Damselflies 