poem 28

Bahman Mohassess. Untitled.2010. Assemblage. 
Copyright© Estate of Bahman Mohassess

blind egret at the beach longs
to sniff salt air but lacks nostrils

longs to taste scurrying red crabs
she lacks a mouth she’s deaf
to the thrumming of their tiny claws
to the rustling surf somewhere beyond
measure where eggshell sands merge
with flat horizons of shifting lapis seas

she cranes her tightening neck
her gray breath creaks crackles

she only senses the wind whisking
her feathers into scuffled ivory lace

she's never known any color
other than the touch of wind
northerly blustering cobalt indigos
dreamy cerulean westerlies
southern turquoise drenching rushes
and spinning cyanic easterlies

cracked slate fills her throat

like her     i with no warning stopped
by a viral slam crashing on my shores
...

with thanks to Rooja Mohassessy
for sharing the photo of her uncle,
Bahman Mohassess's art during
the 2020 Sierra Poetry Festival