SUBJECT>Re: For The Birds at the Chinese Market Who Sing POSTER>Christopher T George EMAIL>editorcg@yahoo.com DATE>1109350558 IP_ADDRESS>mail.acog.org PASSWORD>aaXga4uf0tS3k PREVIOUS>83832 NEXT> 83936 IMAGE> LINKNAME>Poetry by Christopher T George LINKURL>http://chrisgeorge.netpublish.net/index.htm

: For The Birds At the Chinese Market Who Sing
: When the Box is Open

: I envy you the darkness
: The four heads of your brothers
: A quartet of voices silent with waiting
: And I envy you the child’s hand
: The way it flutters there
: With indecision how he decides the lid
: Must go and I envy you the song
: Filling the boy with wonder.
: He calls to his friends to explore
: And then the lids returns, each note
: Stops begins again and the boy
: Plays this game of rhythm
: And there is no reason.

: Yet you sing when the box
: Is open and I envy you
: The dark.

Hi Teresa

A poignant and effective poem as we might expect from you.

I am not sure what to make of "The four heads of your brothers" -- what four heads? Other birds?

Somehow the sadness of these caged birds does not come through as I might expect it to. The joy of the boys is well read, and the whole situation is well described. And yet the poet envies the birds their darkness and doesn't feel, at least explicitly, anger or sadness at their entrapment?

All the best

Chris