A Bird Sings

(from Apollinaire)

 

a bird sings (don't know where
I think it is your soul (keeps watch
over the 2-bit soldiers
& the bird charms my ear

listen (singing tenderly)
on what branch I can't say
& everywhere goes (charming
night & day (weekday / Sunday

but what to say of this bird
to say of metamorphosis
of a soul to a song in the shrubbery
          of heart à sky (of sky à roses

The bird is the soldiers' love
& my love is a girl
the rose is the less perfect & for
me only does the blue bird call

blue bird (like the blue heart
of my love (with celestial heart)
your song so sweet            repeat-it
to the deadly machine gun

that's blasting the horizon            (wait
is it the stars they're sowing)
just so the days & nights go
(blue love (the same as the heart's

---

First published in quic_lude magazine, no.1, March 2003.

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