4 Marked by Claws and Cloudburst (by Sylvia Legris)
4 Marked by Claws and Cloudburst (by Sylvia Legris)
Original Text
Sylvia Legris, Nerve Squall (Toronto: Coach House Press, 2005). poem is reproduced on the Griffin Prize Web Site (from the winning volume on the 2006 Canadian Shortlist).
1The calendar marred with birds and you are kik-kik-kik-kicking all the way into June.
2180 days scratched with black X’s and crow’s feet: bird-of-two-minds (goodandevil
3goodandevil)
4single-minded bird (plotting the sky).
5♪ birds ♪ notorious ♪ birds (♪ ruffled feathers and fiendish ♪)
6Rain-divining ducks; rain-murderous blackbirds, hollering hollering from sunrise to sunrise.
7Long day after longest day of wing-striped sky, sun eclipsed by featuers. Blue-black,
8 bruise-black,
9antigen-tinged half moons under your eyes. Beleagured just by thoughts
10of countless birds, prospects of an entire summer riddled with peck-marks and quills …
11Even under closed eyes: oneiric birds; four stages of sleep, each one soaring you deeper
12And deeper into raptor-psyche: Cooper’s hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Black-shouldered kite
13 keep-keep-keep
14… getting sleepy … sleepier …
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011