Two POEMS
Gary DeJong
Bird Conservatory
endangered pipers crown the dune
with offspring, whose cries
are sheltered in conspiracies of waves
we cannot disturb.
silhouettes on tin signs prevent passage:
we may crush the shells
of borrowed, Latin names.
Roadkill
maimed by some unimaginable accident
a mourning dove with a broken beak...
one leg snapped back...
fans the gravel shoulder
trying to reach cover
to let die or heal,
perform a coup de grace
denying dignity either way.
question what is natural
circumscribe the genetic orbit
toward the imposition of hard humanity:
a swift twist to the neck,
a recognition of difference.
endangered pipers crown the dune
with offspring, whose cries
are sheltered in conspiracies of waves
we cannot disturb.
silhouettes on tin signs prevent passage:
we may crush the shells
of borrowed, Latin names.
Roadkill
maimed by some unimaginable accident
a mourning dove with a broken beak...
one leg snapped back...
fans the gravel shoulder
trying to reach cover
to let die or heal,
perform a coup de grace
denying dignity either way.
question what is natural
circumscribe the genetic orbit
toward the imposition of hard humanity:
a swift twist to the neck,
a recognition of difference.
Gary DeJong was an associate editor of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee poetry magazine The Jazz Street and published weekly feuilletons for the alternative newspaper The Crazy Shepard.