Keep at the chase,
the resplendent lights
and roar
of externalized joy
slipping –
annually,
perennially –
through grasping
fingers…
Or…
Make a friend of sorrow
Shake its hand,
learn its curves
and contours,
its bruise-blue depth
and hue
Feel its familiar weight
softly brushed
against the shoulders’
curl
There is no shame here,
in acquaintance
of this humble keeper
of memory –
only an open door
to self-knowing,
a lifetime
of understanding,
recognized.
— C.Birde, 1/21
Dreams:
Of rushing–
headlong –
down flight after flight
of white, right-angled
staircases,
in hope of catching
& meeting
that bright elevator
when it completes
its descent;
Of accepting
the usher’s white rose
& following through
the auditorium’s dark,
near-empty aisles
to a seat farthest back
as the lecturer speaks
of death;
Of wading
in shoals of translucent
blue water,
waves lapping, pooling,
as I balance–
barefoot –
on the world’s knobbed,
ancient spine
while a dolphin swims
just out of reach.
Dreams
& dreams
& dreams.
Forming,
flowing one into
another.
Half-remembered.
Scattered.
Tattered.
Incomplete.
Dreams interrupted
& rest-less
sleep.
— C.Birde, 12/20
Longest, darkest night
Sun stopped, soul stretched,
wing-tipped in slow glide
toward Winter
Lips recite a thousand
half-recalled names of light
Hands clasp a telling dark
shot through with promise
& promise & promises
commingled in this slimmest
slip of slim hours.
— C.Birde, 12/20
With a look in her eye –
imperious, sly –
that suggested
I knew her meaning,
she asked for a taste
(“a taste, just a taste!”)
of my “Boyfriend Jam”,
not jelly.
But I –
bewildered, confused,
unable to grasp
what she implied –
could only stare,
slack-jawed,
standing there,
& in vain futility
wonder.
— C.Birde, 12/20
“Learn to read
the patterns
in the snow,”
she urged,
“& know
you are not
— nor ever were –
alone.”
— C.Birde, 12/20
Your kindness
wreathed
in all its singular
fading beauty
is all I need
to warm me
in this moment
of shared
isolation.
Your kindness
yes
and the memory
of past
kindnesses.
— C.Birde, 12/20
“I would fashion you
a cloak
of moon- &
starlight…”
Her wish –
a subtle balm –
draped ‘round
my shoulders.
“…to guide you through
this temporary
dark.”
— C.Birde, 12/20
I feel it…
the slow creep
of oblique melancholia
that seeps beneath
the skin
as daylight slips,
eclipsed by dark.
Hours dim and dwindle,
smudged from each day’s
steady transit.
Hoarded light reclines
toward torpor,
awaits eventual
rebirth,
while in the interim,
I feel –
oh so keenly –
its very
dearth.
— C.Birde, 12/20
“Look out for the dog…”
Beyond any line of sight,
vanished up a lane
in this labyrinthine,
underground,
terrain,
his words echo out —
a sonic ripple stroked
against the air –
and find their mark.
Warning or instruction?
Unclear as compressed,
unspooling dark.
And then,
sudden as a ghost,
it appears –
the forewarned dog…
A great white beast,
indiscriminately splotched
in charcoal spots.
Prick eared.
Whip tailed.
Smooth fur, close-coated.
Just off the path, it waits…
Great rosy tongue, a‘lolling.
Shell-pink pale muzzle
upturned in doggy grin.
A creature far from
fearsome.
Continue in accord
through enfolding dark;
left arm slung over
the great dog’s muscled,
lambent,
milk-white shoulders;
draped across its thick neck;
until…
Until…
Furred flesh shifts and
shivers;
morphs;
transforms.
Exchanges canine shape
for human;
woman.
Tall, straight-spined;
strong, clear-eyed.
Tireless companion.
Fearsome guide.
Warrior.
Side by side,
press on as one —
together —
through the dark.
— C.Birde, 12/20
“Meet me
at the boundary
of the untamed &
half-wild…”
Her call
swept the sky
of cloud.
“Meet me
on the threshold
of dream.”
— C.Birde, 12/20