Winged Time

The first hummingbird of the day (David Chorlton artwork)

Three-twenty-one in dove time.
The moon has turned its white face
toward infinity. The sunlight
is restless with a slow breeze pushing
it from where it tries to land.
A short way down the street

the house for sale is lonely
without so much as a smile to occupy
its rooms, although the mockingbirds
outside it sing

their isn’t it peaceful here song.
The sidewalk shines its afternoon
shine, a ninety degree No Man’s Land
occupied only by grackles

pulling their calls out of the sky
to warn the silence they are keeping up
their vigil over what
surrounds them. The hummingbirds
are clocks whose hands never stop.
Four-thirty-eight has reached

the mountain ridge, and flows down
to the lantana universe where
each second blooms
into nectar.

David Chorlton is a European who became a longtime resident of Phoenix and has developed an interest in the wildlife of the West. He has a recent book with watercolors and poems featuring the local birds, The Flying Desert. Read other articles by David.