"Andante, andante, and let me float away" (ABBA)
_______
(for Ellen Jaffe)
I saw a winter bird perch at the fork of an alder branch, sweet
stout guardian! as if a tree & he were one;
but now with his back to me the bird grew rotund. perhaps afraid to
ripple in the wind, perhaps afraid to fly;
and when he'd flown the branch shook free, inclined to look north
& stab wildly at some angry lake sky
