“Quiet Birds”, posted for Oneshotpoetry.com

"Nuthatches", watercolor, 2006, Jane Kohut-Bartels

QUIET BIRDS

–

Quiet birds!

I have not changed you into metaphors yet.

Your chatter adds crystallized chaos

To last nights tokaji clouding the brain.

My eyes open with reluctance

To splinters of light

Challenging soft, painful membranes.

–

The smell of black coffee cuts

Into the reality I am no longer young.

A night like last should be wrapped in tissue

Locked deep in a trunk,

To find when I am past temptations-

Having room only for memories and regrets.

–

Quiet birds.

The day looks promising.

I await a new flock of metaphors

With polished feathers

To land on my shoulders,

Weighing me down-

Colorful daydreams,

Peacock words,

Bird of Paradise thoughts!

–

For some reason,

Words, whole paragraphs,

Circle my head, then

Flap off in a thunder of wings.

–

I hear laughter of rude crows,

See a mess of bird droppings,

And with a few cracked seeds

begin my penitence-

Starvation wages for a poor poet,

Left to a flightless life.

–

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2008, 2011

With thanks to George Szirtes, for the words: “Quiet Birds, I haven’t changed you into metaphors yet.”  I couldn’t resist.

–

Picture of author from "White Cranes of Heaven", Lulu.com