Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Largest Bird Ever To Fly

-------------------------Are we who we were once and then never again? - Jonathan Johnson


We agreed the condors were beautiful

You are who you are in the desert

Rocky cliffs and rubble

Hours of preening

A disaster of claws

There's a lot more to this

They're going to begin digging in our back yard

When they uncover the altar I'll be out

Walking the dogs

Our daughter will feign forgetfulness

Against my returning

You will leave

A jar of water on the edge of dawn

6 comments:

naoko fujimoto said...

I love "A jar of water on the edge of dawn." What is your inspiration to write this poem? I felt Mother Earth after reading it.

Charmi said...

Thank you, Naoko.

I don't know about the inspiration. I started with a line from a transcript I was working on "We agreed the condos were beautiful." But you know I'm not the kind of person that finds anything inspiring about a condo! But changing one letter gave me something else, a bird. I think otherwise Arizona is on my mind lately.

naoko fujimoto said...

I see. "Arizona" in my mind, I understand more about your poem. But I really like the beginning line "we agreed the condors were beautiful," though.

Charmi said...

I hope we can work shop this piece when we get together.

naoko fujimoto said...

Sure :)I would like to write 40 poems by this September. I have 11 so far.

Charmi said...

Wow! That is a worthy goal. You're forcing me to get off my butt :-)