August 2022
Bio Note: I suppose each of us seeks moments of respite from the catastrophes of climate change, court manipulations, violence...you know what I'm talking about. I've been using Merlin (the free app from Cornell that allows the user to tape bird songs to identify what birds are near by -- with great accuracy.) I live in a Vermont woods and have found myself watching spectrograms (visual representations of sound) for ten to fifteen minutes at a time as Merlin stacks up the diversity of birds nearby giving me song. So I offer birds.
Swallows
Beside this river’s current, quiet in summer heat
we watch these birds glide from mud nests
clustered under barn eaves. You ask again how chess
pieces move; I draw a board in mud and watch the birds.
The bishop’s moves resemble diving for bugs,
coming and going in rapid slides. The knight
makes mid-air shifts. The king’s limitations
bore me, one step at a time, as humble as pawns.
The swallow, named from the devourer,
claims the queen’s fluid maneuvering
and forked-tail agility, eating on the run.
You open your pack, offer figgy granola bars,
and call me a rook.
Regrets
Imagine birds
as common as robins on a park lawn
strutting stuff and blending into shadows
under about-to-rain spring clouds
as if common means unimportant
they yank up reluctant worms
wrigglers
memories resurrected as palindrome
past to present, forward to backward
whichever way you’re pulled to act
pray reconsider or apologize
reverse indecisions
short hops that give you wing
then bring you home
to the lawn you already know
as green under ominous overcast
©2022 Tricia Knoll
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