Waiting For A Song
So many silences in Iran.
Even birds have omens.
Came for an avian concert
on a walk
on a lark, but
thirty birds
pecked at a dog
who whimpered
then chirped.
All the birds
growled at me,
barked like Basiji.
Came for an avian concert
for a song, but
the dog’s howling
was off-key
and the birds
dropped sticks
on the wires of a fence
like a dulcimer.
seems the birds have lost
their concert master,
imitate predators.
concert canceled
in a breeze
I carried a feather home to compose,
to wait for the rain, and
the thunder of the people
—Douglas Gilbert
