Feather

on her way to school

a child scoops up a feather

blackbird lost last night

Blackbird

a blackbird settling

on the scarecrow’s tattered hat—

first drops of spring rain

every afternoon

in the shadow of a church

old men playing chess

cemetery blues—

the lieutenant’s new white cross

skewering the moon

Wednesday afternoon—

in the shadow of a church

old men playing chess

long before daybreak

hoping that the great horned owl

will sing to the stars

a chartreuse pencil

tracing the mercy of trees

the grace of grasses

a cobblestone street—

blue bicycle with flat tires

waiting to be fixed

in the zocalo

at least a hundred pigeons

fighting for one crumb

attaching the wind

to the oak’s highest branches

with a sailor’s yarn