Estrangement
       

Better if the chickadee gave up
its sweetheart call,
or the embrace eroded against the trellis
of amaryllis, or was lost
in the arbor of grapes clustering
like gossip.

A shame, its insistence
on clarity, clear pitch sailing over beds
of oleander, over the clarinet
branches of juniper,

so that its hoarse offer
goes unanswered, ricochets
off the crumbling wall at woods' edge
where the mint parts
from the jasmine.

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Copyright © 2012 Paula Bohince All rights reserved
from West Branch
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission