Sunday, May 27, 2012

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


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