Up
Gregg Gorton 1953 (Syracuse, NY)
By dawn I am up
and onto the hill, birds
maybe chirping at me
as I always hope
they will. Two
Say's atop the house
are saying something
and a Kestrel is all
balled up atop
an oak, fully fluffed
against the cold
wind. I poke
in the soil after
artifacts, but find
I'm just exhilarated
to have made it up
and not to be, fearfully,
over the hill.
About this poem
"Say's" refers to Say's Phoebes, a pair of which live in and around the front and back of our house in the high desert grassland where Tohono O'dham Indians have lived for centuries. The Kestrel is our smallest falcon, one of which winters on our land. Species names are capitalized, following tradition in birding writing. Some rhyming words--interior, slant and end--add some scaffolding.
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"Up" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 8 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/151371/up>.
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