Crier of the Marshes

Poemata 89

when a child, I walked / beside the cat-tail marshes / and heard him call out

Crier of the marshes, 
 call aloud to me 
  hold your neck aloft
   spread out your wings to the sea;
Spread your wings so black
 to cover where they lie
  shade the sun in spring
   suddenly, like locusts die;
Call among the bulrush 
 bruise them with your shout
  pierce the sullen mists
   deep in the meadows about;
Spread your wings so red
 to signal season's end
  summer brightly burns
   quickly to but make amends;
Sing amid the pools
 in lurid, murky eve
  make a sound so pure
   even the deaf may believe;
Spread your wings of gold
 in garden fallen dead
  flowers fallen, brown
   bearing a crown for my head;
Calling from the cliffs
 in cataract above
  falling quiet now
   knowing the silence of love;
Spread your wings of brown
 and bask in winter sun;
  fly away anon
   ending what once had begun.

Author’s note: This is a red-winged blackbird.