Bird Say
by Jeff Schiff
April 2022
Has to be meaning in it
right?
a feathery discourse
to be reckoned with
a conference of high voltage crows
arguing climate change
a crew of not lately sated vultures
talking serious turkey
atop ruined churches
and derelict chimney flues
a shout of bushy jays
clearing their flight path
a staccato of acorn peckers
teletyping a homegrown
and quaint credo
an incontinence of rock doves
common pigeons
bitchily iridescent
dripping their chalky
language of disdain
on benches on eaves
on shawls pressed
for evening wear
a displeasure of rusty sparrows
mustachioed and rusty crowned
(the stuff you’d know
if you hadn’t merely come along
for a bit of avian chitchat)
a pester of starlings
glutting the alameda ash
denser than dusk betrays
to the untutored eye
squawking
their leave-your-money
and-go-home
tourist farewells
Jeff Schiff’s work has appeared in scores of periodicals over three decades. His books of poetry include That hum to go by, Mixed Diction, Burro Heart, and Anywhere in This Country (Mammoth Press); The Homily of Infinitude (Pennsylvania Review Press); and The Rats of Patzcuaro (Poetry Link). He has served on the faculty of Columbia College Chicago since 1987.