September 2016
David Huddle
dhuddle@uvm.edu
dhuddle@uvm.edu
“Wren & Bear” was inspired by an exchange of photographs, one of a bear in a meadow taken my poet friend Tasha Graff and the other of a Carolina wren in a tree that I photographed at Cape May Point, New Jersey. Tasha emailed me her picture of a bear without any accompanying text, and so I emailed her my picture of the wren, also without any accompanying text. Almost immediately--probably because the photographs passed by each other in silent cyberspace--I began to imagine the conversation the wren and the bear might have had if they had found an opportunity to speak to each other in passing. I was happy to have found within me both a bear voice and a wren voice. Since then, I’ve been able to write a couple other bear poems, but my wren has allowed me only this one poem. I suspect she wasn’t entirely happy with my portrait of her in this one.
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Wren & Bear
Wren:
this morning I am caruso pavarroti mariah carey frank sinatra with maybe a touch of lady gaga & her cutting edge beauty & I am loved by the sunlight the copper beech the clouds the air piano teachers & all educated citizens whereas about you they have nightmares & when they see you they don’t know whether to curl up on the ground & raise their hands above their head scream or be quiet & shiver themselves to death plus I am up here & you are down there.
Bear:
my grandfather tells of waiting under a cedar tree with his mouth open a whole afternoon until a little jabbermouth wren like yourself flew into it & perched on the pink carpet of his tongue & sang a foolish little song like yours & so vain was this warbling idiot it realized where it had perched only when it noticed the picket fence of my grandfather’s yellow teeth & then my grandfather exhaled lightly whereupon the bird fell over upside down asphyxiated & dead & rather than chew up & swallow such a pitiful pile of feathers my grandfather spat it out onto the ground & excreted mightily & went to look for grubs beetles worms nuts & berries.
Wren:
this afternoon I am michael jackson maria callas dave brubeck duke ellington the irish tenors the mormon tabernacle choir plus a touch of lady gaga & my size song & extreme beauty were decreed by the same creature-maker who designed you to be the example of all that is crude odious dull songless fetid & brutal under the sun which has little use for you anyway look at my wings look at my wings just look plus I am lullaby hymn sonata concerto blue grass soft rock & I must remind you again because you keep forgetting how I am forever up here & you will always be down there.
Bear:
what loves me most are rattlesnakes who sleep with me through the winter the night the dark in its thousand variations the rocky stream that would freeze you into oblivion if you so much as dipped a wingtip also the little fawn at the edge of the meadow that dreams of a fast & sweet death coyotes whose songs are dedicated to me human babies before they learn fear dogs who know they are treacherous locked up in the houses of humans and so need something to bark at to pretend to their masters they once were wild high rocky slopes of mountains edgar alan poe william faulkner jack london tom waits mark rothko whose paintings are secretly dedicated to me cellists tuba players rock & roll bass players shostakovich & most kinds of berries.
Wren & Bear
Wren:
this morning I am caruso pavarroti mariah carey frank sinatra with maybe a touch of lady gaga & her cutting edge beauty & I am loved by the sunlight the copper beech the clouds the air piano teachers & all educated citizens whereas about you they have nightmares & when they see you they don’t know whether to curl up on the ground & raise their hands above their head scream or be quiet & shiver themselves to death plus I am up here & you are down there.
Bear:
my grandfather tells of waiting under a cedar tree with his mouth open a whole afternoon until a little jabbermouth wren like yourself flew into it & perched on the pink carpet of his tongue & sang a foolish little song like yours & so vain was this warbling idiot it realized where it had perched only when it noticed the picket fence of my grandfather’s yellow teeth & then my grandfather exhaled lightly whereupon the bird fell over upside down asphyxiated & dead & rather than chew up & swallow such a pitiful pile of feathers my grandfather spat it out onto the ground & excreted mightily & went to look for grubs beetles worms nuts & berries.
Wren:
this afternoon I am michael jackson maria callas dave brubeck duke ellington the irish tenors the mormon tabernacle choir plus a touch of lady gaga & my size song & extreme beauty were decreed by the same creature-maker who designed you to be the example of all that is crude odious dull songless fetid & brutal under the sun which has little use for you anyway look at my wings look at my wings just look plus I am lullaby hymn sonata concerto blue grass soft rock & I must remind you again because you keep forgetting how I am forever up here & you will always be down there.
Bear:
what loves me most are rattlesnakes who sleep with me through the winter the night the dark in its thousand variations the rocky stream that would freeze you into oblivion if you so much as dipped a wingtip also the little fawn at the edge of the meadow that dreams of a fast & sweet death coyotes whose songs are dedicated to me human babies before they learn fear dogs who know they are treacherous locked up in the houses of humans and so need something to bark at to pretend to their masters they once were wild high rocky slopes of mountains edgar alan poe william faulkner jack london tom waits mark rothko whose paintings are secretly dedicated to me cellists tuba players rock & roll bass players shostakovich & most kinds of berries.
“Wren & Bear” first appeared in Subtropics 14
©2016 David Huddle
©2016 David Huddle
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