Two Poems by Catherine Arra

 

Ode to His Parrot

 

Lilac-crowned, ruby-nosed

tufted iridescent green

 

how you’d have been a star

at the rainforest gala

 

if ever you hatched in nest

beneath belly feathers and coos

 

in sultry nights

soft rains

 

before hungry boys snatched

you for a dollar.

 

Poached, packed, parceled

incubated for pet-store prowlers

 

you landed in his cage

the one meant for me as ultimatum.

 

His house, his rules, he lost

and you, poor Polly, gazed at winter

 

shivered, screeched, cawed, clawed

and crapped on his rug

 

instead of me.

Brindisi

 

Sweet dance of my life

be graceful as the gilded wake

of white pelicans

 

Forging a fierce faith

into morning solitude

opening portals

 

Of connectedness

spontaneous embraces

unmasked joy seated

 

With local honey

wedge of brie, chilled prosecco

after-Covid tea.

 

Catherine Arra is the author of Deer Love (Dos Madres Press, 2021), Her Landscape, Poems Based on the Life of Mileva Marić Einstein (Finishing Line Press, 2020), (Women in Parentheses) (Kelsay Books, 2019), Writing in the Ether (Dos Madres Press, 2018), and three chapbooks. Arra is a native of the Hudson Valley in upstate New York, where she teaches part-time and facilitates local writing groups. Find her at www.catherinearra.com