Friday Follies 20 MAR 15

Black Byrd

swinging in the dead of night

Take those broken wings . . .

Mississippi rain

Half nod of a Byrd

hanging from a tree

EXCERPTS FROM "THIRTEEN WAYS OF HANGING A BLACK BYRD"

ONE

Among twenty rainy trees,   

The only hanging thing   

Was the body of the black Byrd.

THREE

The black Byrd swung in the winter wind.   

It was the Final Act of the pendulum. 

FOUR

The rope and the tree

Are one.   

The rope and the tree and the black Byrd   

Are one.

FIVE

I do not know which to infer,   

A body of shadows   

Or a body of light,   

The black Byrd hanging   

Or just before.

SIX

Raindrops fill the window   

With savage reflections.

The body of the black Byrd

Crosses it, to and fro.

The moon

outlines

An inexplicable cause.

THIRTEEN 

It was midnight all day.   

It was raining   

And it was going to reign.   

The black Byrd swung

In the locust-limbs.

And until next we meet, may all your potatoes be sweet (and dusted with cinnamon.)