Nest
                                          (found on a branch between the handrails
                                          of the tourist bridge, Iguazu Falls, Argentina)

Yellow bill, deft needle
braid of reeds and thistle.
Oval in the white sway:

a branch (a dumb place),
a shell the human finger
soils. Mishandled little

wilderness, the nest.
Holy, the ground. How to
loosen the straps

(unlearned) how open our
ears for warning. We
set the branch aswing.

The bird (foolish thing)
flickers through the bush.
Yahweh wing, scissoring,

no tablet, no commandment,
no chalked circumference
around the wild, urging

"stand back." The mega lens
descends (hand numb to flame).
And click. And crack.

Copyright © 2009 Katy Didden All rights reserved
from The Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission