It is 4 a.m.,and a black dog breakscrust on old snow – stumbles.And a full moon loomsto reveal just easta crackling of limbs felledby gathered frosts and westa barn owl arcs silent – a slurryof cream, hunger and brownwinter kill hovered and plungedby moon and yellow porchlight.A black dog stiffens and sniffs –limbs give no […]
But for the pheasant’s coppered wing the fieldsin sculpted snows ne’er bring the promised yieldsnor pleasures found ‘til light does crest the riseat dawn and ambers claw upon the eyes. To wake and wonder here among such thingsas iridescence glides there down and bringsunto these smothered lands and frostbit handsa hope that winter’s scoff no […]
When the lastsoftpoplarfell,and the bluejays – the bluejays –rolled out; When the mangled nestspilled outthese mouths,these bentfeatheredtufts; When the chainsaw stilledits shriek and whir; When thick air closedabout us; When the larger jaysswept off the elmand veined away –blue lines on a blue sky,blue abandon in a blueeye; It was then,in the clearing of dead […]
If I knew anything, like a dog’s tail wags, like an iced wire sags, I would know a hard mouth stings. But there in the blaze of it, in that thick tongued moment, when your eyes glazed on a word, a dry twig snapped beneath a bird. And what fell there, what broke there, now […]
I ain’t seen no crow do no killin’, never in a day. Shit, they ain’t even a squabble. I seen a lot a’ crows on a lot a’ roads, courteous as squaredance, bobbin’ over coon, skunk, whatever red, always cool to clear the way and wait fer a passin’. I ain’t seen no dead crow […]
I’d sooner fold airplanes than hummingbirds, crisp-crease the fuselage, blunt the nose for mass and pulling, right tension the wing for a bit curl and lift, turn up the rudder with a pinch. This I can muster. And though I can muster a glide depending, I’ve never mastered the birds, never tried. I spied a […]
