by Donna Spruijt-Metz
Under my skin, now,
disorder, unruliness, a gift
a country
of hummingbirds. So many
with tremolo
wings, the hummingbirds—
part of one thousand
species of birds here—they sip sweet
sap, beaks bright,
the lush forest shows, greens
Rembrandt never had
and yellows
oh!
The agouti swifts across
my path—right across
my feet while my skin’s
undoing is now
the rainforest, the slow denuding.
For now, the birds
deceive us—
continue to migrate
back and forth—old patterns
break slow.
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