Zunzún Disambiguation
I caught a glimpse
of tremulous wings
beside the straggling
Rose of Sharon—
long tiny bill
wide purple bloom
and my full hands
cupping dripping
eggshells in
slow motion toward
the garbage can—
quiver in
top left corner
kitchen window
my heart breaking
* * *
XIV
After thirteen, the blackbird flew its way
and I simply could not look for any more.
For days I was unsure. How should I look
at next? Absence set a stage for text.
The space the blackbird left behind was filled
with many things. None wore feathers, wings.
The borders of what’s gone are well-defined
mysterious and seldom understood:
The blackbird was hungry/full all afternoon.
Pies baked for a blackbird would be good.
* * *
Grotesquerie
How formal, the absurd,
near “normal” yet bizarre
as a two-beaked bird
that’s lost its voice
and robs the ear
not once, but twice.
We find Design, we
weird lovers of cloven
parts pickled in brine,
in the odd observed:
half seraph half horror
in glass, tenderly preserved.
* * *
Felicia Sanzari Chernesky is a longtime editor, slowly publishing poet, and author of six picture books, including From Apple Trees to Cider, Please! and The Boy Who Said Nonsense (Albert Whitman). She recently moved away from a masthead to work with those who want to share their stories and poems in print.
featured photographs: Michael J. Romano
