Another bird poem – a poem by Melissa J. Varnavas

Another bird poem

Here it is. Another bird poem.
Another bird bellowing, and I am
chasing the sound down the dense
hall of morning to the damp pear
branches where its call drowns
out all other thoughts, my book
forgotten, held open in light fingertips,
as the cars pass, drivers ogling as I
stand on the sidewalk, head tilted
heavenward focusing to find
the bird amongst the silver-sheened
greens and shifting golden globs of
too-early light against the dark
shadows, searching for the sound,
for the bird that must be
huge to make a trilling so
reverberant it beats against the
heart and overpowers it.

But it’s just this, a full-throated
house sparrow offering
its song to the wind.

Melissa J. Varnavas is a poet, journalist, and editor living in Beverly, Massachusetts. A graduate of the Solstice MFA program at Pine Manor College, her work has appeared in the literary journals in Oberon, End Times, Blast Furnace, Margie, The New Guard, and elsewhere.