Freezing fog
Ices over the bog
Of suburbs
Sleeping sound
Crows perch on
Dead branches
At the edge
Of the streets
Cawing effervescently
In the obscuring frost
It floats and cloaks
Unwithering
And stopping still
Sunlight
Redshifted Telecom Pleiades
Redshifted Telecom Pleiades
Idle air nibbles with
Cold teeth at the warmth
Coming off of
Bodies wandering streets
Frosted telecom jungles
Canopy the intersections
And the skyline above
Shines through the wires
Red blinking alpine lightning
Rods warn aircraft of low
Altitude treetop masts as
Towerkilling Pleiades can
Orient the avians
To high-strung cables
Tangled wires like branches
Just above the sidewalks
Yet much further up
Stand these reaching masts
With blinking red tower
Lights at their tips like
Parallaxed redshifted Pleiades
In an endless sea of stars
Of grey
And black
And tower concrete
die Bionic herfs
This is an essay I’ve had gelling around in my head for a while. I consider this to be my soft opening to NANOWRIMO, because I’m sure as hell not going to get 2,000 words a day at this rate. This was written with references to Afrikaans in mind. And there’s a lot of portmanteaus in it. It’s got some good images, and I might turn this into a poem someday.
Sparrow
Sparrow
Birch bark shaped
Into bows
And tied
Opus chimeric
Now taught
How to fly
Never withering
Or ever
Fragmenting
A cedar stick
Shot true and
Can’t miss
Avanti
Avanti
Around rubied feathers lie
Ashes dusting thine
Branches with meager
Orange particle weavers
Blackened beak speaks
Alone in a wood
Echoing off of trunks
And crackling tree boughs
Ashes crisp with dew
Tumble down the branches
Dusting the leaves
With their passings
Cast to the forest bed
From the tall canopy
Of grey canvasing
And precise paintings
Where the snow and ash meet
Crunching under phoenix feet
Talons searching for things lost
By those whom are avanti
Heretics
Heretics
The crow touches a rosary to its forehead
Then tosses it to a gutter
Outside a church
As the crow is followed by followers
The dove sees this
And lingers behind
The line of avians
Who follow the crow
A jay watches this
From across the street
Dark eyes calculating
All the others’ moves
The revered establishment
Fades as the crow walks
The others still follow
To see what happens next
The followers on the sidewalk
Enrage and display
All the aggression
They feel for the crow
It doesn’t mind
The mob is loud
But
The sky is louder
The rosary didn’t grant the crow
Wings
It hides its feathers
Under thick black coats
The dove joins the mob
The crow casually flees
Looking for a sanctuary
Somewhere else
Then the dove is seen
Among the crowd
Eyes drawn and
A weapon in talon
The jay crosses the street
Running in front of everyone
It surges ahead
To walk with the crow
The dove grows in power
The other birds have a leader
They press their march
On the crow’s trodden path
Then the crowd burns the jay
And it is lost to the mob
The crow relents
And lets itself be taken
The dove takes a knife
To the crow’s covered back
Sheen of blood on
Layers of delicate feathers
It stands above the others
The heretic has been slain
They gather to trample and burn
The heathens on the sidewalk
The crow’s coat
Is lost in the fray
As ashes rise from
The two birds’ backs
In brilliance, the jay rises
Radiant fire burns
Up from the ashes, donning the coat
Is a jay reborn as the phoenix
It takes the crow in talons
And flies it away
Looking for a sanctuary
Somewhere else
Old World Red
Old World Red
Under your pitched tent
I roll out my bed
It’s just a pad under my head
But it’s my place to rest
The cloth’s aroma of old world reds
Brings to me a dispel of dread
And my pockets are filled
With ticket stubs and coins
My coveralls jingle
With memory of the thrill
Laying down
Asking why
We’re back to the old world
We set up camp away from town
We can see the lights far away
When we pack up once again
We reignite the thrill once more
Laying down
On a bed
Of old world reds
So many questions represented
When ticket stubs are presented
To punch into the festival
The theaters of live music
We walked for days
With the tent of old world reds
Lighting the bonfires for warmth
Cooking out every night
Setting down the things we needed
To rest for a moment
Passing lakes and camel trains
In the land of pure amusement
Sitting under statues in meadows
Of the ones who came before us
Looking at the zodiac light and
Listening to morning birds sing
Rolling out our beds
Pitching your tent
Of old world reds
Sun Stained
Sun Stained
She had a quintessence audience
Gliding silk smooth wave motions
Slow lapping, gentle rhythms
Hurting rain and hot earth steam
Waxing moons rising
Trail lines blurring
And the air is flowing
So smooth
The birds circled and flew
Overhead undercast
A goddess dove and prince crow
Circled and danced and revolved
It was cold in the stratosphere
But not for long
Sky intwined destiny
Is coming along
Sun stained soul wraiths
Floating by the riverbank
Had a nice time
Of the days
In that daze
Of the royal-bound stowaways
Who found the water
So clear
The wayward ghouls
Displayed lights and sounds
Near the water’s edge
So lovely and clean
With the spirit’s
Last parting festival
They wished the river
Still gleamed
And above the smoke
Of the spirit’s last carnival
Flew the birds who
Sang so sweet
Above that last
Bright, loud celebration
Flew a crow and a dove
In sync
The ghosts had to look
Up at the avians
Twirled in tune
To the songs
As the music of the carnival
Wore on through the night
The spirits’ gaze
Fixed on the birds
And the goddess among them
Who graced the happy wraiths
Sat on clouds above
Shining and bright
And the spirits with their souls
Looked above as it rained
On the sounds of an
Indolent day
Phoenix
Phoenix
Come on, crow
Let’s leave the dove
We have much to do
We must get acquainted
The other bird must dwell
In its own misery
She was growing
Tired of your calls, anyways
Let her have fits
Let her cry
Let the dove flap about
Over nothing to crow about
Let her regret
As we fly away
Let the dove think
Of what is lost
Oh, let her suffer
Let her lose feathers
And may we drift away
Into the sky
Let me take you away
Into the sky
You asked me for my hand
And I hid it away
You cried my name out loud
When you thought I was lost
My beak is made for yours
My plumage is what you yearn for
I am a phoenix
Let my ashen garb consume you
So come on, crow
Fly with me
Forget about the dove
Fly into the cloud sea
Birds In the Bay
Birds in the Bay
A crow and a jay
On the rocks by the bay
Never wanted to leave
The nest they had dreamed of
After both once bereaved
The jay would always sing
The crow always cry
Solace in a place once empty
The sound of their sound
Echoed off the waves
They lapped at the rocks
And the calls making music
The pain, they fought through it
Together they needed no one else
The sad song and beautiful lyrics
Mingled a tune understood by all
The jay and the crow called all day
Albums at a time, pitch perfect
The jay sang and sang and sang
The crow would cry softer each note
The waves would calm, the sun set
Sunset setting rays piercing the bay
The moon would rise, the air thin
The calls cease, waves grew louder
The crow and the jay would roost
A nest they built fit for two
Two little avians retract their wings
Each others feathers keeping warm
Quiet at once, the moon rising still
Soft cooing would contain
Sentiments once shared
No sound needed, no gift ungiven
The crow and the jay
Whom lived in the bay
Sang stories every day
Loving in their own way
