these birds
my father taught me how to catch birds a brother
calls me Tippie daddy said: carry a saltshaker kid
if you can throw some on it’s tail it’s yours!
for years i slunk in tall grass with salt + a dishtowel
until i was about 53 when it came to me these birds
were catching me
time stands still when you hunker in grass the pact of
Faust who even had a black poodle Mephistopheles
ditto me his name just Blackie (father’s burst of creativity!)
over the years the birds grew bigger one taloned a brother
another scooped our mother father was actually carried off
by hundreds of wrens one with a dowager’s hump now circling me
i chronicle this at art school my project seemingly sombre is
actually rather uplifting you see after the dismembering there
will be a gathering up motherfatherbrother et al. now taking tea
why with all of this positivity
who knows what mountains
i will climb what streams i will ford
stop rolling your eyes
and tell me what are u
grateful for?
__
Summer 2023 ..next poem.. sunshine+daffodils..🤟
songanddancegirl 