Ungainly starlings
gulp greedily at feeder
swarm in raucous flocks
sow sky-black panic
disrupt native
nuthatch   junco

But on year’s
most dormant day
they bud thick like leaves
on bare branches
plumage sequined 
as if by snowflakes
they seek to outfly

Suddenly wings rustle
like parchment
in thin wintry air

their grace a palimpsest
to preconception
                        

I want to ignore you, my pettiness, my timidity,
the agitation you cause, want to disappear

you—no hint of a backlit silhouette—
into some damask night. But you stare, plead

to your gods that I stay close, touch
even while I look away—like sibling wolves

we tendril in our dissonance. Can my weeping
weaknesses glow in a beauty that comes

in curling close, filling cracks with fingered gold,
warming, despite snow’s cold snarl?
                        

Grounded at the bus stop
earplugged into virtuality
she’s oblivious to raucous
calls of geese
angled to scissor sky—
masked ambassadors sing
of new season
glide wise 
keen on winging home.

Will she and her pals ever hear
the honking that heralds flying Vs
care that selfless leaders know
to peel back to the ranks
feel the pulse
		of spring and fall
		north and south?

It is virtual sleep
to sense solely what spins
within your skin
synapses silenced 
eyes and ears turned inward.

And then the briars grow
seal the body’s fortress
till nothing startles, wakes
not a kiss or even the geese
still plotting their course
		spring and fall
		north and south.