© 2014 by Yvonne Blomer

Yvonne Blomer most recently co-edited Poems from Planet Earth (Leaf Press) an anthology out of the Planet Earth Poetry reading series. Her poems appear in Force Field: 77 Women Poets of British Columbia (Mother Tongue Publishing) as well as in A Crystal Though Which Love Passes: Glosas for P.K. Page (Buschek Books). Her work has twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Awards and has appeared in The Best Canadian Poetry in English as well as in many anthologies and literary journals in Canada, the US and the UK. Her first book, a broken mirror, fallen leaf was shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. As if a Raven is forthcoming with Palimpsest Press in 2014. Yvonne writes creative nonfiction and teaches poetry and memoir courses through Camosun College and privately. www.yvonneblomer.com

 

Between Plaited Tresses
Yellowhammer

If he were man, if she were as beautiful as he,
if she were man she’d ask: what is it you hide
under those gold and auburn plaited tresses
covering your chest, feathers full of carotenoids.
But she is bird, but he is bird and she is colour
blind to this beauty, but her ears are inside-out
fountains that let sound drip in, roll,
can you feel it roll now, that final
drawn-out rising and falling and calling
zizizizizziziie-diuh.  What he hides, what she hears
is heartbeat, is breast bone letting syrinx fall,
is to man the place where collar bones meet,
the scooped out spot where a woman’s pulse imitates the soft
vibration of a bird’s wing ready for flight’s take off.

______________________________

Published in Otherwheres: UEA Creative Writing Anthology, 2005, Pen and Inc Press, Norwich UK and forthcoming in As if A Raven 2014 Palimpsest Press