Desire: A Bestiary

Magnificent Frigate-Bird

Where is your nesting site?
Mud-spattered branch, or tree—
even the ground will do.
Time, now, to raise your voice,
your skilled falsetto, skyward
as if to summon down
from extraordinary flight
a mate, her wings spread wide—
Your throat-sac quivers, bright balloon
from which song bursts
too late, too soon,
your head near-swallowed
by the pulsing of your throat.

Copyright © 2005 Ned Balbo All rights reserved
from Lives of the Sleepers
The University of Notre Dame Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission