That we speak in different ways
about different things says a lot.
The Redwings in the mountain ash
use asterisks to ask questions
about where next to find berries
or which star to follow on which
night. Cowbirds pretend to join in.
European starlings, Shakespeare’s
darlings, know that to sing or not
to sing isn’t an option. Crows
know this. They croak and crawl across
the sky to a rhythm their wings
make. How Grackles first occupy
the trees and why is not what I
need to know but when the morning
sun will come and break up the night
in forms of black birds taking flight.
Names of Black Birds (IV)
Deborah H. Doolittle has lived in lots of different places (including the United Kingdom and Japan), but now calls North Carolina home. An AWP Intro Award winner and Pushcart Prize nominee, she is the author of Floribunda and three chapbooks, No Crazy Notions, That Echo, and Bogbound. When not writing or reading or editing BRILLIG: a micro lit mag, she is training for running road races, or practicing yoga, while sharing a house with her husband, six housecats, and a backyard full of birds.