Aviary
        after Joseph Cornell

The box's safe: the cockatoo must be singing.
Sound comes through in waves (concentric
circles radiate like super/sonic
powers portrayed in comic books), so the two
metal curlicues spiraling on either
side of its head must be the tinny notes
of its song. If a bird exotic sings in a box
would anyone hear it? Come close.
Cup your ear to the glass. A bird in a box's
worth two in the bush. Perched on a dowel,
the caged bird sings: because it's safe, because it's
  sound.

Copyright © 2009 Michael Leong All rights reserved
from e.s.p.
Silenced Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission