Murmur Of Flight
There is a murmur in the roost.
There is a rumor in the mist
and a feather in the dust,
a drop, a stall before you fall
into the long flight away
far from the silver cage of the rain,
far from the river that spies on the moon,
far from the shudder when wings are torn
by ruby traps and diamond rats
who gnaw soft parts of dreams away.
There is a tremble at the lock;
there's an assembly under the wind,
a memory at doors the sparrows tend
whose lintels are stars and whose handles, hearts
turning to open the musical sky.
August 2023
originally written for In the Footsteps of Our Feathers
and posted for Open Link Weekend at
Images: Three Sparrows In A Rainstorm, ©Ohara Koson Public Domain
Ornate Door in Fez, Morocco via internet author unknown Fair Use
That last Stanza is wonderful. Took me away!
ReplyDeleteWow! Every single line and image is spectacular. Such fine writing, Hedge. A flight.
ReplyDeleteThis is marvelous to read even for just the sound pf the words in the way you've deftly arranged them. I just want to read that opening stanza aloud because it rolls off the tongue so beautifully. Moving on from my infatuation with mere phonetics, I love "the silver cage of the rain." It does seem like a silver cage at times, doesn't it? The drops falling in lines. This has wings, to be sure, Joy.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Shay, I needed a cigarette after the first stanza and I haven't smoked in 30 years. Then came the lilt and sway of the rest. (I'm still swinging in "the silver cage of the rain".) The feathers here for me are tiny, perfect, liberating and utterly devoid of human heaviness. A sweet note in a hot dark night. Happy to hear there's cool AC if not well water.
ReplyDelete"...and diamond rats
ReplyDeletewho gnaw soft parts of dreams away."
"...hearts
turning to open the musical sky."
Wonderful!