There Never Was a Bird

There never Was A Bird

There never was a bird—in that cage.

Whitewashed for company who never visit.

Never muss the unsoiled perch.

Never give a feather to the edge of the snipped wire.

Never enjoy the hole and its ocean view.

It is what it can be. It is an object

With a title. It is a prince among princes.

It is a cenotaph for soaring souls that fear delight.

It is a third image of the blue peninsula.

It is ekphrasis redux. It is connected to this by this.

It is for this that I am.

Her words were heavenly enough to name that cage.

If I could—I would pin together the feathery paper scraps

Left behind—to build the poem named Object, Untitled.

 

From the book Chatter In The Canopy, Poems by Jeff Roberts; Drawings by Dick Roberts and Doug Heinlein, © 2008 Jeff Roberts, Booksurge, Charleston SC, ISBN-10: 1439214816;  ISBN-13: 978-1439214817;  LCCN: 2008909362. Available from Etsy.com & amazon.com