Falco Columbarius by Mari-Lou Rowley

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Falco Columbarius

Wizard wings, delta Vs tumbling down apace

scissoring air, aerodymanical

shape=shifter amongst the woody hills.

Beware the incubus’s diabolical dive

how sharp his eye far from the view of day,

wicked his laugh a ghastly noise of iron chains.

He will snatch you out of life

in a deep delve or in mid-flight,

Beware his ragged cloak a ruse for subterfuge.

What was that you said about birds?

For fear the cruel fiends

Frivolous and not to be trusted,

should thee unwares devour.

Take heed their talons, mites, viruses,

beaks in the eye.

[Text in italics from Spenser’s Faery Queene, Book III, Canto iii.]

 

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Mari-Lou Rowley has encountered a timber wolf, come between a black bear and her cub, interviewed an Italian astronaut, and written seven collections of poetry, most recently Suicide Psalms (Anvil Press 2008), which was shnort listed for a Sask Book Award. Forthcoming books include Transforium, in collaboration with artist Tammy Lu (JackPine Press 2012), and Unus Munud (Anvil Press 2013). Her work has appeared in journals and anthologies in Canada and the US, including the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics and on the Canadian Association of Physicists website.