1. A common raven Corvus corax high overhead. Not so common, and beneath, where I stand only A window a mirror But no blood. Are you listening? This essay is…
-
-
* * * The Grackle An iridescent grackle landed on the red-tiled rooftop of my neighbor’s old house. It skipped directly to the red-black rusted eavestrough at the roof’s edge…
-
The men are vibrant, flashy, full of color. The women are of neutral tones. The men are on display; they catch your eye. The women blend in with their shades.…
-
Four doors down, next to the dumpster, lives a silver haired mother of misfits and magpies. She diagrams patterns of birds on the wing through scatters of millet and thistle…
-
She arrives like an epiphany, an emerald-green flash outside my kitchen window, tiny and frenetic, with feathers that shine like soap bubbles. Not much bigger than a dragonfly or a…
-
Untitled I. Birds migrate fat, packed for long flights, thin dirt pecked at past dusks’ dim lights. I leave unturned no leaves, return all borrowed twigs, bereft this home…
-
When I was a fifteen, my family had a large unshaded backyard, a self-propelled gas lawnmower, and no men. The mower was an old LawnBoy: greasy and green, with a…
-
My mother has purchased antique cap guns to get the crows. She hates the crows because they cornered a squirrel in her backyard. She watched them from the kitchen window…
-
Murgiwala You do what you always do. Everyday. Unaware anyone would take special interest in it or in you. You choose a chicken. See them all fly and land, fly…
-
It is so easy to decide not to go to the Marquette street garden at 6 am when the alarm sings its hellacious requiem. But I went anyways, today. i…
-
* * * Wings Wings are intricate things, yet simple. So without much thought, flap yours to fly. Don’t make it hard work. Let them just be and glide. …
-
The sun reveals the mountains one by one in shades of smoke and slate and coffee grounds. Then it gets to work on their ancient contours, lighting up the spaces…
-
Word of the day: “hleów-feðer” – lit. “shelter-feather” (Anglo-Saxon); a comforting or protective arm placed around someone or something. (Robert Macfarlane, posted on Instagram, November 10, 2017) The cardinals’ nest…
-
A tiny song sparrow lights on the feeder. It peeps as it eats. Casts its little bead-black eyes up and around incessantly, scanning for hawks, falcons, danger. The chickens in…
Newer Posts