C. James Kendrick

Bower Bird

Hey, look honey, I made you another thing out of nothing.
Even my nothing is blue. I’ll leave it on the mantle
for the next time you come around.

The man on the side of the road standing in his underwear-
silk underwear, gold with black diamonds-
arranges his things carefully in his shopping cart.
He’s got all the best nothing in his black and gold
Nirvana t-shirt. I made him just for you.

And, in the arms of your new lover, did you see that sunset
bursting against the night like Phaeton in a twenty hydrogen
balloon pileup? You guessed it. I’ve been busy.

If I had a dollar, I’d buy a bright blue brick and throw it through
the nearest jewelry store window. I’d make the moon dance blue
in every glass diamond on the night-blue sidewalk.

But I ain’t got a wooden nickel or a blue spruce.
But I made the moon out of tinsel and glue
and I’ll pour the moon in a buck and wing shoe
and I’ll keep it on the mantle for the next time you come around.