HUMMINGBIRD

by Gwen Austin Unpublished copyright 1998

I peered out to where he sat
among the golden fingers of the birch --
a rufous hummingbird,
a neckband of scarlet shimmering on the border
and accenting feathers’ array
of sienna, white, green --
bejeweled on the fragile limbs of the tree.

What power to embrace life.
What glory to endure
in what will be its fate.

When I snapped a tender twig,
he winked at my eye,
next he flitted on high.

He ascended,
neckband glittering and ruby-red,
and when I watched,
he twinkled in farewell.

Photo by Stan Westfall