Why did you make me a nightjar, Ma,Such a portly unmuscular bird?Why must I flitter this tortuous pathAnd emit this crepuscular churr?Do you hear the night birds ridiculeOur spooky flap and vulgar cry?“You Goatsuckers!” the horned owl twoos,“You cooky Caprimulgidae!”“You sprogs of Nyx,” the barn owl twits,“Dark harbingers of puckeridge.”I’m tired of being a nightjar,…
Soar with me, gentle reader, to the heightsOf Mount Olympus, seat of heavenly bliss,Where bright-eyed Paeon is apprenticed toAsclepius the wizened herbalist.When Heracles’s arrow finds its homeAmong the raging veins of Hades’ neck,Young Paeon plucks th’intruder from its nestAnd stems the blood with ginger turmeric.If artful Diomedes’ singing swordShould pierce the golden abdomen of MarsTis…
~ 1 ~ The sun burns orange in the western sky,It dips and disappears, and way up thereOn old Yakuuba’s toothbrush tree you sighA sweetly sorrowful pre-migration prayer.You launch into the void in search of spring,Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you strong.A vulture shrugs a valedictory wing:Au revoir, mon beau phragmite des joncs! ~ 2…