Atlas and Alice, Issue 16
Beverly Burch
Incantation to Avian Followers Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come. — Chinese proverb A halo of feathers and chorusing. Such a twitter, such love songs. Wings beating wildly, devotion trembles in the air. Stupid warblers, a little red sprig is my heart. Angel-squawkers. Fledgling disciples. They brush my cheek, tender as flies. Try to nest in my hair. Hooded and orange-crowned. White throated butter butts scramble up my leg, bay-breasted, black capped, even an old gray comes with praise. Bird brains, dumb clucks. Groom me with song. Maybe the green will grow.
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