BLACK PHOEBE
            Penny Wilkes
                c. 2003
========================

    I call him Flash Fleetwing,
    a bird to train in my hand,
    yet heĠd never permit it.
    Fred Astairing the breeze
    he plucks food on the fly
    dressed in charcoal waistcoat.
    inverted V a white bib,
    probably monogrammed.
    He thrills air in his 007 life,
    sycamore branch to lamppost,
    above glisten on grass.
    He mocks gravity and breeze
    who skirmish for his attention.
    My whistling swivels his head.
    Top feathers go crewcut.
    He lounges with pheep, pheep. pheep.
    Birders say he protects his territory
    when he zooms me that way.
    What do they know of friendship?


========
========