Blackburnian Warbler at Dusk
by K.E. Duffin
In memory of Julia Budenz
Firethroat, scout of topmost leaves
gilded by the last rays of sun,
a flame turned up in you grieves
this fleeting world and craves another one.
You sight a frontier never forgotten,
twisting gently like a struck match
turned golden weathervane,
pointing north, and home. Stars hatch
and wind surges. Light drains away.
Woodland subsides into its dotage.
Thrushes, on their final errands of the day,
bullet through murky foliage.
From the highest sprig where you still cling
you see what I sense in shadow below:
the great barge of night approaching,
the barge of rest, magisterial, slow.
Ember cooling in the dark,
you doze far above the leaf litter
that will one day hold your spark
of bones and feathers. At dawn, you’ll glitter.
Copyright © 2011 by K. E. Duffin.