Grackles with Late Spring

Photo:  Egg bowl shadows.    David Graham

Here is another poem by Paula Sergi from her forthcoming book Black Forest Love Songs.

Grackles with Late Spring

The one with a broken wing is back,

insistent. Flakes fall from a muted

gray sky. At first they look like ashes,

a careless whisper of fire. Then orange

beaks break through white as they gather,

drowning out sparrows and doves—

make no mistake, we matter.

Angling towards earth, snowflakes

and grackles alike, whether I wish

for goldfinch or crocus to butter

my day. By afternoon layers have landed,

white snow over blue-headed birds

whose heads glimmer like black pearls.

Smaller birds hide in bushes while

grackles side-step in snow that falls

like loose feathers, erasing tender

shoots of green, drowning bloom

of songbirds. Grackles and snow until

I don’t know what to believe,

the white or the black of it.

--Paula Sergi