Sea Birds. Todd Preston.

Sea Birds

That cottage on the marsh

Had a porch built for drinking

And watching the birds:

The Rug Stitcher's turquoise piping

And black mats of kelp

Dennis's Plover that seemed to scold

Each minnow before dashing

Their brains on the barnicled rocks

And the Gilgamesh Wren, with such

weird effigies of vomited mud

The Colander Bird, tailfeathers straining

Those marine tidbits

Shrill chirping chorus

Of Teedlepeets in red swarms each evening

To decimate the Piano Fly hatch

and signaled to me

it was time cut limes

these birds were my only timepiece

that horrible summer

with the phones corroded bell

clicking wetly

the sun mindlessly bleaching

the cottage to the color of bone