Overhead,
the Dog Star pants
& prowls a sky stretched
blue & rainless,
casts unhurried shadows
upon once-green grasses
stitched through
with summer’s leonine heat
turned rasping,
wheaten.
— C.Birde, 8/22
Endless — A Poem
Laden — An Image
The weight
of fevered air
bears
down —
each furred breath
of moisture
an
oppression.
— C.Birde, 8/18
Mirages — A Poem
Shrill summer —
heady spell of drama,
pushed and pulled
to extremes.
A full-throated
shout
of heat and light and
expectation,
swollen
beyond tolerance.
Cicadas rehearse
their one-note
chorus,
and sparrows leave
shallow depressions
beneath the hedge
to mark
their baths of dust.
Disconnected,
we hide and bemoan
the heat,
impoverished time,
our stillborn
dreams.
— C.Birde, 8/2/17
SunDog — A Poem
That space —
just inside
the side door —
splashed with
January light…
Enough to lure
both cat and dog
to vie for
possession
of its gradually
narrowed wedge,
its bone-filling
memory,
of warmth.
— C.Birde, 1/17
Heat — A Poem
I wear the heat like fatigue —
a pearled and sequined sheath
that restricts breath and movement,
quells thought,
and drains
creative impulse
steadily
away.
— C.Birde, 8/16