Experts

[to Emily Dickinson]

teaching the wind to speak

they make a name: the blue jay

feather's forced to float down

clouds like jewels - the rose

to scatter petals pinkly

on the crystal pavement

credited to who knows who;

they're sure to get the world's best prize-

they mine the gold out of the sun

and they will feed

on light forever after

so it seems they have to tell

the bird on the stark unboughten bough

what singing is for-

all things arrive to their own orbit

anyway, bearing a coded music-

bending no rainbowed

showy piano strings just

to prove a point at the concert

having no need of expertise the diamond worlds move on-

mary angela douglas 18 december 2010