Poetry: Jennifer K. Sweeney

Call and Response
by Jennifer K. Sweeney

There are mnemonics for remembering bird calls.
Listen to my evening sing-ing-ing-ing croons the vesper sparrow,
But-I-DO-love you pleads the Eastern meadowlark
or the Inca dove’s bleak no-hope.
That fall, an American goldfinch frequented our trumpet tree
with its airy Po-ta-to chip! and I thought
how our bodies exude their own churling mantras:
in the past, I-am-no-good
then, please-just-breathe just-breathe.
. . .
[Read the rest here in Sweet: A Literary Confection.]