MORNING THEN, MORNING NOW
Seagulls squawked
beaks like scissor blades
in lazy circles above the hills
crying.
Pigeons paced the market roof
then rose in synchronized ascent
thirty-four wings taut as sails
in early-March wind.
Juncos arrived like travelers
tweeting
frantic staccato trills
pecking and hopping
leaving with leather bound suitcases.
Crows held court in a eucalyptus
on a handrail
atop the silver crescent of the mosque
cawing verdicts
earnest folklore
dark wisdom of the crone.
A hummingbird shot up
beat
seventy times a second
flit
needle tips
straight into the heart
bleeding on a black tar roof.
American robins bop
proud chests push, quick necks peck
up and down like elevators.
Now a blue jay dive-bombs patience
“Make way for Braggadocio!”
In a cross-hatched tree-limbed sky
imperceptible but through sound
a crow caws in syncopated rhythm
with a chickadee’s fee-bee, fee-bee.
Sherbet tulips, ivy crawl,
narcissus, seed sprawl,
lawn chairs, fire pit,
rhododendron leaves
wide as tongue depressors,
back wall climbing vines,
crocus, daisy, iris, rose bushes stir
baby bare now sprouting
buds on every limb,
brick paths to old shed, old barn
old growth starts to dapple
the whacher (is what she was) is
supine in the ground.