Hummingbird Heart by Paul Ilechko

 

https://www.scitecheuropa.eu/what-determines-the-colour-of-hummingbirds-feathers/99150/

 

Scoundrel dog smiles heart like a hummingbird
there is a weight to his affection that overwhelms

we walk miles to end up in the same place
that we started the only response is joy

we walk across a desert we walk through a forest
we memorize the paths that take us and the paths that don’t

hearts wrap around each other like a strangling vine
we are mostly muscle and ligament

feeling the sorrow of ancestry deep within our bones

we pass the fire we breath in the smoke
our bodies churning in constant motion

we pass the place where the road collapsed
we pass the place where the bridge collapsed
the world standing ready on the edge of collapse
the world is whose world the place is no place
where the fire once burned

there used to be a bus that came this way
there used to be cars and lights and the sounds of music
escaping from inside their metal shells

now there is only silence and walking and the plumes
of smoke and walking and the dog still filled with belief
in the restless seething of his hummingbird heart.

 

***** 

Paul Ilechko is the author of the chapbooks “Bartok in Winter” (Flutter Press) and “Graph of Life” (Finishing Line Press). His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including Juxtaprose, As It Ought To Be, Cathexis Northwest Press, Inklette and Pithead Chapel. He lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ.