What The Starling Said - Drew Lanham

[Larry Robinson]

What the Starling Said


The European starling,
meanwhile
more American than most
on two legs
but without benefit of a hyphen
to prove cross continental citizenship
sat high on an electric wire
mellow buzzed breeding plumage
off Loud
weed cloud upward wafting,
sagged cutting catty-corner between
what was 38th and Chicago Ave—
soon to be named for the human
no longer in existence—
shook its yellow-beaked head
unbelieving
reshuffled spangles
sun sheening
on immigrant iridescence
knowing the status
of being neither
served nor protected by law
or gifted benefit of any doubt
or common decency,
and subject therefore
to the
same suffocating ends
as the corpse
crumpled in the street,
before whatever little “g”
white gods
watch over dark hued beings,
let loose proclamation
that rose above the din
to more metal on metal
raged screech
than smooth practiced speech,
before joining the evening
murmuration in protest.
Sturnus vulgaris,
neither profane or dirty
kept vigil,
sat murmuring
to the flock gathered to watch
organized by empathy on the issue
of whose existences mattered.
Clearly
that black life
did not.

       - Drew Lanham





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