nests collected poetry Leslie Leung
— The metaphor of nests lends itself to larger implications of home; they are artifacts of a migratory event, residual remnants of what’s left behind in the process of making a temporary space for new life. As spring blooms and reveals itself, these poems capture moments of new life as it struggles to wake itself from winter’s cold, sleepy hands.
harbinger a fragile Spring could not help but break out of range above the salted space past the flyways that grew a fainted cold Spring you traded four seasons for one we wait for you because even the monsoons could not reverse the wind that coos for you to tell us the time
oology you travel from place to place in between seasons, irregularly because there is no food for you there is no place for you the weather has changed,
You return, having
crossed
barriers
high
above the turmoil beneath you to bring life nestled in twigs of grass.
Doveling— Listen: your shell crackling pieces, guiding a place of air and breath, feathered bristles awaiting blossom, clear-tubed thistles wrapped tomorrow, you bloom: ever soft, petalled arrows of silk breathing. huddled together like fresh moss with a dusting of powdered snow.
honesty hand picked leaves camouflaged sincerity no light, moisture or scent threadbare surfaces entwined dynamic avoidance sometimes creative paralysis becomes a nest of line little bird, were you daydreaming?
you’re miles behind your sister.
sky
sky
sky
sky
sky y sk
s
k
sky
sky
sky
sky
sky
sky
sky
behavior when dust and dirt nestle in fire places daily embers warmth fatigued, bleary-eyed red, silence slowed — an elegant swan bend, reach of the jaw kept zipped, soft-lipped loose labored, whispered eyelids preened, smooth aligned phantom phoenix limbs ready for flight
swan egg aerial sighting mother swan white, an egg in a nest of green
eyelashes peeps tip-toe outside the nest the hatch is born, with a wingspan wide enough, wade though eyelashed leaves whispers float your tinseled body above water the chamomile lilies camouflage your scent let your eyes handle the new earth beneath
quiet nest winded breath gusting uncovers dandelion feather blankets