4 Marked by Claws and Cloudburst...

The calendar marred with birds and you are kik-kik-kik-kicking all the way into June. 

180 days scratched with black X’s and crow’s feet: bird-of-two minds (goodandevil 

       goodandevil);

single-minded bird (plotting the sky).

                                                                  __

 

                       ♪ birds notorious birds (  ruffled feathers and fiendish )

Rain-divining ducks; rain-murderous blackbirds, hollering hollering from sunrise to sunrise.

Long day after longest day of wing-striped sky, sun eclipsed by feathers. Blue-black, 

       bruise-black,

antigen-tinged half moons under your eyes. Beleaguered just by thoughts

of countless birds, prospects of an entire summer riddled with peck-marks and quills ...

Even under closed eyes: oneiric birds; four stages of sleep, each one soaring you deeper

and deeper into raptor-psyche: Cooper's hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Black-shouldered kite 

       keep-keep-keep

... getting sleepy ... sleepier ...

Bibliographical info

Sylvia Legris, “4 Marked by Claws and Cloudburst,” from Nerve Squall. Copyright © 2006 by Sylvia Legris. Reprinted by permission of Coach House Books.

Source: Nerve Squall (Coach House Books, 2006) 

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