issue 36 > poetry > slonimsky

A courtesan of loops, this wind-smoothed oak:
at 10 AM, branch-curlicues of white
flash brightly as surrounding snow.  One look,
and twenty blackbirds settle down, alight
on this or that sharp twist in bark.  Their eyes
can help this tree see winter’s end…blackbirds
have fallen for tree-twirls.  And, no surprise,
you’d like to turn such winter love to words: 

“How loops are quite seductive.  Morning light
caresses branches with such delicacy
that birds arrive to savor rapture.  Quite
a grand tableau, black feathered tapestry
of wings at rest upon a writhe of branch,
so convoluted.”  Then: ten larks.  A finch.  






Also by Lee Slonimsky:

A Walk Long After Class