Red-Winged Blackbird

Margaret V.Doran

The smoky haze drifting upward through the trees
proved to be fog, raising its curtain to admit the day
and although it was lighter, through my window
the sun itself could not pierce the low cloud cover
that eclipsed the tops of the snow-crowned mountains
and another day began,
caught somewhere between winter and spring
when everything is cold, damp and muddy
and the wind offers no surcease

The blackbirds and starlings that wintered-over
settled thick upon the bent and twisted
ancient blackberry canes
yet when they raised their black cloud
I saw a flash of red upon an ebon wing
he had returned; my harbinger of spring

Copyright © 2003 Margaret V. Doran. All rights reserved.

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Updated May 12, 2003
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