The latest “Tiny Moments,” just out, has my poem, “The Hummingbird”:
The Hummingbird
Same day late July, every year by backyard fence,
single blur of beryl green and ruby, finger-length,
squeaked like sneakers running polished wood,
hovered over foxglove and impatiens,
unseen long bill probing pink and purple,
unseen tongue grooves lapping pollen,
unseen stretched wings stroking circles.
I called my son and got the camera,
panned it through the flower bed,
clicking, clicking, clicking to incarcerate
the hummingbird’s frenetic path,
and always failed to frame its flight
or fleeting sudden stop and perch on petal,
the boy meanwhile with rounded hands
hunted after, shoveling through the air
and crooning, not a teeny helicopter, not a bug.
Decades later scrutinizing family photographs,
he wonders why I took so many
out-of-focus shots of backyard flowers.
To buy the issue: https://www.bronzebirdbooks.com/