SHOCKING to see the cardinal eat a gecko
thick beak designed to crack seeds & nuts
one would expect it from a blue jay
not this red bird with its sweet song
now a gecko hangs from songbird beak
lifeless & being shaken
its head consumed then tail
legs gnawed away
it looks like a small fish
yet too big for the throat
of such a now ravenous bird
_________________
I looked out the window today and saw this cardinal with a gecko. Unexpected metaphor to the current events.
a thud on the window
see-through glass brings the woods outside in
just for a second the bird believed it could fly into my living room
hit hard
spine fracturing thump
a pine siskin is convulsing outside on the deck
its beak moving as if it eats
feet traveling in a journey
wings that cannot move
There is a horny robin
banging into the reflection of itself
against the glass window he thinks he found a mate
it is cold and hard
repelling his every move
yet he keeps coming back
handsome with his orange breast
sits at the top of the apple tree
contemplating his new approach
and mumbling
that feathered bitch
Two California Condor on the ledge
young ones with faces to the cliff
it was a cold night
after warming up they will fly
if you hear the wings pound
watch them soar
__________________
Saw these condor when walking the Navajo Bridge
to my husband
I took your name
it was smooth
birdlike
a long necked thing
white or black
never in between
this is not a swan song
it is a love song
ready to sing
against a sea of feathers
a bird taking wing
The first white pelican I saw was in Florida. My husband and I were driving past a pond and there it was resting on the water. I shout white pelican, white pelican. (We were sometimes birders.). Go around the block. He won’t do it. He keeps going. There is only so much pain I can wear on my face. I kept it there for days.
Now in Texas he says – did I tell you there were white pelicans on the lake yesterday? White pelican, white pelican. We walk to the lake seeing them from a distance. We keep walking to the shore and there they are, about a hundred more.
find white pelican
migration flight in winter
wipes the pain away
Little bird altar
blessing on every branch
Oh sing
the song of praise
for the day
that starts and ends
with bird harmony
Song of the dove
cardinals and sparrows
Sound of a bird call
Wakes me up
Come let’s go and see
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NaPoWriMo prompt – write a lune on day one – http://www.napowrimo.net/
Written on April 1, 2016 in a different time zone and yes this really happened.
I was asleep in a tent in Cathedral Park in Canada and the call of a loon woke me up.
I got out of my warm sleeping bag and went to the lake to see. Such a beautiful bird.
