Lifted birdily out of the sober
quirks of sadness, not to be weighed down.
Forget the palette, the easel-hours stuck
sitting like a petrified gorilla—

here’s quick strokes, dark washes.
Poised ambiguities: landing /
taking off? One bright eye unfailing
dares an old man’s

wingsprung bespectacled
spherical & bearded
comic-poetical self to find
grace in the fine uncertainties.

Jennie Feldman, Three Birds from a seires of imaginary birds by Edward Lear.
PN Review 206, Volume 38 Number 6, July – August 2012.