Home ⇒ 📌May Swenson ⇒ The Woods At Night
The Woods At Night
The binocular owl,
Fastened to a limb
Like a lantern
All night long,
Sees where all
The other birds sleep:
Towhee under leaves,
Titmouse deep
In a twighouse,
Sapsucker gripped
To a knothole lip,
Redwing in the reeds,
Swallow in the willow,
Flicker in the oak –
But cannot see poor
Whippoorwill
Under the hill
In deadbrush nest,
Who’s awake, too –
With stricken eye
Flayed by the moon
Her brindled breast
Repeats, repeats, repeats its plea
For cruelty.
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