Fish and Birds

All silver-blue, finned with a spiny sail,
a great fish passed, and from its churning wake
these phosphorescent bubbles rose to slake
my thirst for words. But oh, they seem so pale
besides the dimmest gleam on living scale
of marlin or dorado! I could break
my heart by struggling uselessly to make
a line as graceful as a dolphin’s tail.

No rainbow runs the sky as fast as words
escape me when I pull my net ashore
like minnows slipping through too coarse a mesh.
My mind is filled with images like birds
who freely roost above an open door,
but captive, turn to dull and lifeless flesh.

Collection available! Knocking from Inside