words like acrimony and amertume
before somebody came along
trying to cram the hard graininess
of disagreement into language
before all that, there were birds
some really quite big ones
—a rude person might say elephantine
which would be harsh because the thing is
they still flew, that’s the miracle of it —
however wide of girth and unwieldy
they were with their big, blocky heads
these massive prehistoric lumberers
sailed upwards and coasted around
on the westerlies and northerlies
of ancient time — they didn’t feel
gauche or non-svelte, they felt beautiful
all airy and agenda-less, quite caught
up in their meandering (sometimes
bellowed) improvisations across vast
expanses and serene — happy
even in the knowledge they could
be purple, if the mood took them
but also, any time they liked —
they could be mauve.
