I dreamed I stood in throat of light
that dragon larynx silence roars;
a hoary grey* breathed over me
and the wet tongue of the dew;
and deep within its engines lit,
those syllables of cloudy light,
kindness-swathed civility,
brightening, whitening till a tinge
of deep rose rose deep down;
and then I heard in
delicacy of dialect
a whisper winding round my limbs
'Awake'
and casting bedclothes back
I sat upright as some youth might
neophyte, listening for the word...
and heard a blackbird tracking time,
stitching grey daylight into space;
I didn't know quite where I was;
puzzlement gaped my glaze -
the bird calling from a far country
through familiar ancient door,
scintilla fading in grey air,
deep becalming now and here.
I lumbered heavy with my age
off to relieve a bladder's weight
and saw the deep cave of the light,
still immersed in the song that he
sang in the old tongue yet -
no English town bird -
picked up the tang of his songs
from a fiercer light.
All other birds were silent
until he delivered his last word;
then magpies took the baton up.
Balgonie farm came scumbling back;
transfiguration was complete,
conundrums stacked along the track.
....................
There is no word 'gray' in UK English, it's always 'grey'. Though mostly on Wattpad I defer to USA spelling, since my readership is around 40% or more USA, I will stick with 'grey' here.
The Eurasian blackbird, introduced into Australia of course - in Melbourne in the 1850's. And the only place I have heard it in Australia prior to this morning was in the university in Melbourne, though I am told it's about here and there locally, in Sale for example. You in the USA don't have this bird and wonder what it is I rave about, so: -
