The Brightest Bird

But Very Quiet

To Timotea

The brightest bird of all is seen aloft
upon a hanging swing beside the door,
where its dull glass admits the sunlight’s soft
spring gleam upon her wings. High off the floor
she sits and contemplates her corner or
her pink and yellow feathers. No rough fowl
is she, from youth she never cursed or swore
or flailed or guffawed–consonant or vowel
unspok…