“Hold me —
always —
in your heart…”
She smoothed
fern-laced fingertips
over my brow.
“…for those moments
when it all
feels
too
much.”
— C.Birde, 7/21
Wood & Light — An Image
Rescue — A Dream
Leave them.
Leave them here,
near the white marble
countertop –
paring knife
sweet potato
woman.
Attend, instead,
to the anger,
the flint & spark
of charged words.
Attend
the grief & fear,
the ceaseless fall
of tears.
Follow this unhappy tide –
jaw set
ears attuned
heart clenched
Follow
toward the table
spread with white cloth,
chairs pushed in
to contain that
which lies beneath,
within…
Avoid
the hand that shoots out
from this self-made cage
to grasp at calf,
at ankle…
Grasp
that hand & s-q-u-e-e-z-e
until those fine,
timeworn bones protest,
the hand itself struggles
to retract…
Demand –
c-r-u-n-c-h,
c-r-a-c-k –
demand
that he release the child
he traps beneath.
In exchange,
release your grip.
Exit,
tousle-haired child
weeping against
your neck’s curve,
balanced on
your hip.
— C.Birde, 7/21
Sweet Clover — An Image
“I am vast,
expansive…
I am the smallest
of small…”
She tilted
a smile.
“I am
– like you –
a pleasant contradiction
of selves.”
— C.Birde, 7/21
Bee Tree Psalm — A Poem
“Come,”
he said,
and lead me out
beneath the bee tree’s dome.
We stood together,
wreathed
in sweet saturated scent and
downward-descending drift
of apiarian song woven through
that namesake tree’s
flower-pricked upswept
boughs.
And we were one,
and we were one,
and we are ever
one.
— C.Birde, 6/21
Hmmmm… — A Poem
Apiarian hum among
spirea wands as bees
– carelessly, casually –
rearrange clusters of
blushing flowerheads
to their liking.
— C.Birde, 6/21
Funeral — A Dream
Within this timeworn house
of haphazard architecture,
tilting floors & walls leaning
so corridors & large rooms
are winnowed down to small:
A funeral for one who,
in waking life, yet thrives;
while the other pair who,
beyond the dream’s confines
have truly died,
remain alive & utterly besotted
of the two young charges
fostered to their joyful care.
Kneeling,
see how she ruffles their dark hair?
wraps them in embrace,
in smiles & warm kindness?
Strange time to transfer
obligation of such import.
A funeral…
dull ebony coffin stretched
in final demarcation
of the vaguely sloping room;
symbol of thwarted Fates,
of fortunes turned…
And I –
witness to both fact & dream;
to contradiction;
Ghost-like,
I roam the altered account,
unaddressed,
unmarked,
unseen.
— C.Birde, 6/21
Being — An Image
“I perfume
the air
with my being…”
She did not brag,
merely spoke
truth.
“You need
only
breathe.”
— C.Birde, 6/21
Interrupt — A Poem
The sky unzips & groans –
sliced, clipped, bisected –
while, rooted below,
I struggle to parse
interrupted songs of
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Carolina Wren
Ovenbird
&
T
h
r
u
s
h.
— C.Birde, 6/21
The Swimming — A Dream
Gray sea, gray sky
Margins smudged
in all directions
Stretched & stretching
Unbroken & unchanged
but for the smooth fold
& roll of white-capped
wavelets…
Then, movement –
countless pale shapes
schooled & swimming
beneath the gray sea’s
surface in synchronicity
Arms flush to lean torsos,
legs at knees & ankles
clamped, pressed
as though fused…
Their bodies part water
with inhuman, ghostly
grace
No need to surface…
No trail of bubbles
to mark their silent
passage…
Blind & Deaf & Mute
They are the swimming
Dead…
My own eyes sting
my tongue tastes salt
my ears pulse, throb
And then, release…
Within their company,
freed from bodily limits
& swimming…
swimming…
swimming
endlessly…
— C.Birde, 6/21
Occluded — A Poem
O
milky
pearled
occluded
eye
though
turned my way
you see me
not
colored
as the spots
that dot
your twins’
fawn-colored
coats
bless you,
mother of those
two sweet
ciphers
bless you,
your strength,
your wounds,
you keen half-
sight,
& welcome.
— C.Birde, 6/21