(With a few apologies to Wallace Stevens)
1. The blue jay feels free to stare--there are no blackbirds here.
2. Belly-deep in the birdbath, his gaze betrays no gratefulness.
3. A light strip of stippled mask embeds eyes poised to fight.
4. There is no peace in the blue jay's forward gait, his attendance to what he prizes.
5. One wing cocked, beak open: an old man paused in greeting.
6. The jay's backswept crown--a cartoon's implication of speed--stopped, now, to consider me.
7. Q: Where did The Lord forge blue jays?
A: In the eternal smithy of judging men.
8. There is no place from which the blue jay is exiled; he carries this imposition in the tilt of his head.
9. The jay's metallic call projects his umbrage. It is aimed, always, at the impertinent presence of another.
10. I have seen a blue jay beat himself bloody against his own reflection in a window. This one looks only at me.
11. Most pests raid my garden in the shame of night: the blue jay pecks his dinner in the brazen rays of day.
12. With the jay's quick dips across the yard, he paces out his place, a universe from picket to pine.
13. Once, the jay stood on a maple's limb, wings splayed, head aimed my way, a laser aimed by the ecosphere's angry end.
EastWesterly Review 