The Innisfree Poetry Journal
www.innisfreepoetry.org
by Diane Lockward
WREN HOUSE
My husband hung it from an S hook, eased the curve over the evergreen’s low-hanging branch. A slanted roof, a hole wide enough for the small smooth body of the wren to push through, too narrow for squirrels or jays.
We could not bear the possibility of loss.
A hinged door, tiny latch we could open at season’s end to scrape out the nest. We offered temptation, a feeder near the house, filled with seeds. We did everything right, hoping the wrens would come and knowing the house needed to hang long enough to blend, so no bird would mistake it for a trap.
We knew something about adaptive coloration. For months, we imagined the bundle of grass and twigs, eggs hatching, the fluttering of wings. We listened for singing. We had waited like this once before, wanting some soft creature to fly in.
BLUEBERRY
Deep-blue hue of the body, silvery bloom on its skin. Undersized runt of a fruit, like something that failed to thrive, dented top a fontanel. Lopsided globe. A temperate zone. Tiny paradox, tart and sweet, homely but elegant afloat in sugar and cream, baked in a pie, a cobbler, a muffin.
The power of blue. Number one antioxidant fruit, bantam-weight champ in the fight against urinary tract infections, best supporting actor in a fruit salad. No peeling, coring, or cutting. Lay them out on a counter, strands of blue pearls. Pop one at a time, like M&M’s, into your mouth. Be a glutton and stuff in a handful, your tongue, lips, chin dyed blue, as if feasting on indigo. Fruit of the state of New Jersey. Favorite fruit of my mother.
Sundays she scooped them into pancake batter, poured circles onto the hot greased griddle, sizzled them gold and blue, doused with maple syrup.
This is what I want to remember: my mother and me, our quilted robes, hair in curlers, that kitchen, that table, plates stacked with pancakes, blueberries sparkling like gemstones, blue stars in a gold sky, the universe in reverse, the two of us eating blueberry pancakes.
Copyright 2006-2012 by Cook Communication
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