sternum reached to knot

across expanse

— grey day —

knot turned eventually

to house on thoroughfare

and again to bird

a cardinal sat

in plum tree

moved among the blooms —

the blossoms —

deftly among the deep

purple and tissue

sentient as leaf

still attached

to branch

on the breast of the bird glinted

white fleck – metallic — ready for

reach, its filament arms

i did not ask to be cognizant

or sentient

as leaf — breeze,

gust, tear

a bird chirping ch-air

its shoulder sounds

the knot is simultaneously contained within the bird that sits upon the wire

seemingly unmoving, above its necklace of arteries, the major roadways of

its memory lying like strands against the shore – – echoes – – waves as the

child said – – they keep moving out from the point — like in a circle – –

these waves are waves and undulate against the air, all those major arteries,

i spoke of, three, their names necessarily change, but the point is this – that

bird on wire, that knot, sits there, day after day arms outstretched, thrum, hum,

thinking, thought, or not.

in the dark that knot

is light

disc

at sunrise

a cardinal landed on the western plum

a watch rested around my pulse

face : between speaking and saying

scarlet in the plumb

– or maybe next time tawny

knot turned

into seed

developing wings

a blue jay lands on the tulip poplar

the eastern plum is still in bloom

the western plum begins to show color

the hackberry across the street

green beginning, faint, fairly

delicate, what are not yet leaves, two

squirrel nests still exposed above the roofs, well above the roofs,

the tulip poplar which was shaped —

its major branches still cut blunt

surfaces, discs —

the colors, muted, greys, browns, black, quiet

green, what stands out is that pink, white-pink

directly in front of the gaze — purple-plum in the

center behind the tulip-poplar