February 9: Clear and Blue, "Two Sparrows Sold for a Penny," Vote

It's cold out.  Snow is piled eight- or nine-feet high in places around my home.  But the sky is clear and blue. 

It reminds me of a day many years ago with my then two-year-old daughter . . .

Two Sparrows Sold for a Penny

by:  Martin Achatz

My daughter hands me
the wing of a bird,
ragged, stripped almost to the bone
of feathers.  I hold the wing,
its shoulder joint oily with blood.
My daughter smiles, claps
as if she has just given me
a piece of toast or a raisin,
her face bright as sea foam.

I picture a crippled sparrow
panting in deep grass, a cat
licking its claws clean, an owl
lining its nest with skull and spine.
I want to drop my daughter's gift,
urge her to see
the cleaving of the body,
decay, hunger, the fear
of sudden shadow.

I hold the wing, cupped
in my palm like precious water,
and, in my daughter's face,
see clouds and blue sky,
the sun gleaming on the distant
arrow of a bird
in the heavens.

Please vote for Saint Marty (Marty Achatz) for 2019/2020 Poet Laureate of the Upper Peninsula at the link below.  Last day of voting:

Vote for 2019/2020 Poet Laureate of the Upper Peninsula