JOYCE CLEMENT


Birds Punctuate the Days

Image

apostrophe

the nuthatch inserts itself

between feeder and pole

semicolon

two mallards drifting

one dunks for a snail

ellipses

a mourning dove

lifts off

asterisk

a red-eyed vireo catches

the crane fly midair

comma

a down feather

bobs between waves

exclamation point

wren on the railing

takes notice

colon

mergansers paddle toward

morning trout swirl

em dash

at dusk a wild goose

heading east

question mark

the length of silence

after a loon’s call

period

one blue egg all summer long

now gone

from Modern Haiku