sooty dove
a Christ's second time, always coming
impatient for closure: arrival or departure
inconstant as wafers to crumbs
head cocked, bill's calculated snatch
feather claps, fletch of underwing flash
to make airs by act of squinted leap
more boxer than songbird
winging it, with grace-speed balls
startling-darling of dance
clubbing curbed by dawn's mass bells
with flecked derring-doozy you grackle
smart-ass joke, a crack; how levity gets in
turn over the frame, flip the crucifix
to face the wall for the next bit
Pearl Pirie writes in Ottawa. Her poems are in the Better Ways to Go than by Aspartame (2007) as well as in the anthology chapbooks whack of clouds (2008) and Pent Up (2009) from AngelHouse Press and in boathouse (2008) from above/ground press. She has a chapbook coming from AngelHouse, over my dead corpus (2010) and a title forthcoming, been shed bore, from Chaudiere Press. She blogs at Humanyms, at 40wordyear and at pesbo.