Poem
Marianne Boruch
BIRDSONG, FACE IT, SOME MALE MACHINE
BIRDSONG, FACE IT, SOME MALE MACHINE
BIRDSONG, FACE IT, SOME MALE MACHINE
Birdsong, face it, some male machinegone addled—repeat, repeat—the damage
keeps doing, the world ending then starting,
the first word the last, etc. It's that
etcetera. How to love. Is a wire
just loose? Build an ear for that. Fewer, they say.
So many fewer, by far. He’s showing off
to call her back. Or claiming the tree.
Or a complaint—the food around here,
the ants, the moths, the berries. She’s making
the nest, or both are. In feathers, in hair or twigs,
in rootlets and tin foil. Shiny bits seen
from a distance, a mistake. But fate
has reasons to dress up. Stupid
and dazzling have a place, a place, a place
though never. She can’t sing it.
© 2008, Marianne Boruch
From: Poetry, Vol. 192, No. 3, June
Publisher: Poetry, Chicago
From: Poetry, Vol. 192, No. 3, June
Publisher: Poetry, Chicago
Poems
Poems of Marianne Boruch
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BIRDSONG, FACE IT, SOME MALE MACHINE
Birdsong, face it, some male machinegone addled—repeat, repeat—the damage
keeps doing, the world ending then starting,
the first word the last, etc. It's that
etcetera. How to love. Is a wire
just loose? Build an ear for that. Fewer, they say.
So many fewer, by far. He’s showing off
to call her back. Or claiming the tree.
Or a complaint—the food around here,
the ants, the moths, the berries. She’s making
the nest, or both are. In feathers, in hair or twigs,
in rootlets and tin foil. Shiny bits seen
from a distance, a mistake. But fate
has reasons to dress up. Stupid
and dazzling have a place, a place, a place
though never. She can’t sing it.
From: Poetry, Vol. 192, No. 3, June
BIRDSONG, FACE IT, SOME MALE MACHINE
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