Dreaming birds
The eyes and feathers intermesh.
Descartes said birds were small machines.
A startled starling clattered off
And flew away at that, it screeched
That birds are loops in modern minds,
Weird flights, a mode, a fatal curve
Of values in the air. The thrush
Is proto-sculpture on the lawn,
The SS crow patrolling down
A motorway's hard shoulder struts
At sentry duty. From a pole
A blackbird soloist transmits
Its live performance and the cool
Woods pay to hear him, dark guitars
Are slung there and electric cries
Flash down the alleyways of spruce,
Afforestation's gentlest crop.
The dreamer Kant thought of a dove
That found air fretful and conceived
A purer flight in empty space.
I dream of swifts and soar asleep.
Page(s) 72
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