We’re searching
for the single
yellow-headed
blackbird
we’ve heard
commingles
with thousands
of starlings
and brown-headed
cowbirds,
when the many-
headed body
arises
and undulates,
a sudden congress
of wings
in a maneuvering
wave that veers
and wheels, a fleet
and schooling swarm
in synchronous alarm,
a bloom radiating
in ribbons, in sheets,
in waterfall,
a murmuration
of birds
that turns
liquid in air,
that whooshes
like waves
on the shore,
or the breath
of a great
seething prayer.
*
About This Poem
“Birding, for me, has become a great passion. There are hundreds of extraordinary sights as well as great transfixing beauty out there in the trees, on the water, in marshes, backyards, parks, dairies. All you have to do is look.”
Sidney Wade
*
Sidney Wade is the author of six books of poetry including Straits & Narrows(Persea Books, 2013). She is also a translator of Turkish literature. Wade lives in Gainesville, Florida, and teaches at the University of Florida.