Red-winged blackbird strides across turf,
crimson escutcheons flared. Conk-a-reee!
But here comes a rival,
a bandit at twelve o’clock!
Scritch!
Knocked to his side,
he’s back up, ready
for hot feathered
battle and
love.

Once my ex-wife told me,
You’ll follow your cock anywhere.
Despite my decades of loyalty,
she was, in a way,
right.

Conk-a-reee!

(No. 52 in a series of responses to Han-shan’s Songs of Cold Mountain)

Far from being lessened by our animal roots, we can feel a sort of universal connection that is simultaneously uplifting and poignant.

Conk-a-reee!

(Numeric reference to Han-shan’s poem reflects the order of presentation in Burton Watson’s translation, presented as Cold Mountain, Columbia University Press, 1970.)