Bird Stories
I
aging birds that
once hopped fields,
sang on clotheslines,
now straddle trees.
hot wind across the desert
fluffs cactus wrens,
branches bend; eaves hide warblers
that echo dark canyons.
under cumulous skies, thunder claps
like flaps of feathers
upsetting the balance of alighting night owls
II
a robin’s egg hatches in the trellis,
sparrows jet over blooms
then dance on the wood-block tree
at the end of spring, is the nest
half full? half empty?
vines hang to cover light
the babies nest
above the doghouse
III
crack/break of hummingbird eggs
shelled beaks
chanting canticles
background fiddles weave patterns
violins, violence
opposites attract
the doves crow for harmony
Written By: Gloria Keeley
About the Author: I’m a graduate of San Francisco State University with a BA and MA in Creative Writing. My work has appeared in Spoon River Poetry Review, Slipstream, Forum and other journals. I graduated from CCSF and I taught at CCSF for 34 years and was the editor of Forum in 1969.
Visual Art Piece “Eyes of Bougainvillea” By: Vincent Calvarese
About the Artist: As a writer and visual artist, he found his wings amongst his heroes of Eureka Valley. Using the San Francisco Bay Area as his canvas, he highlights themes of restorative justice in The Final Visit, familial pain in The Flesh of the Father, gun violence in Three Cloves of Garlic, the pharmaceutical crisis in The Clipboard and the gentrifying 7×7 plain in The Slanted Winds Down Guerrero Street. He is a past General and Poetry Editor for Forum Magazine.
Forum Literary Magazine 