April 2021
Bio Note: I sometimes try, and really enjoy, changing the “I” in a poem from me, to that of a bird. This
poem, “At The Feeder” is one such attempt. Maybe some day I will try with a different animal, an inanimate object, or
another person, but for now, it’s birds. I was happy to be able to read my poem from March issue of Verse-Virtual,
called “Parkour”, to a zoom audience for International Women’s Day.
At the Feeder
This morning she has her black eyes out
again. Lifting and lowering, lifting and lowering
with featherless wings. Round lenses point
at us; following our movement to the hanging seeds.
Crescent-shaped Blue Back White-bellied
Long Beak, and Yellowneck Stripe-feathered
join me at the eating spot. Large Bark-peck-pecker
comes too, then flies his blackwhite feathers red-head
back to trunk. Little Black-cap Stripe-tails flit
and flutter as usual, swirling around each other
and surfing wind whooshes, in and out from vine
and branches to seeds-in-a-bunch ball.
She sits behind her glass there, lifts and points
those black eyes. I have seen her step out of nest to put
those hanging seeds in the air. We’re not afraid, as long
as she stays away, in her big glass-and-wood square.
©2021 Marjorie Moorhead
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the
author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual.
It is very important. -JL