News to Me

Birds sing pictures of the land.
At dusk under blue thunderheads I sit blank
when prairie chatter bursts on my mind-screen
a copse thick with tiny round leaves.

Birds cry their feelings in color.
A red-winged blackbird's harsh complaint
splashes cherry red
against the mud tone of my mood.

In late afternoon of early spring
prairie birds converse in leaf words
small and wild and soft silver green.

04/10/86