Back to Spring 2021

bird bath

BY CONNOR VINCENT

Summer dawn splits shadows

trapped in shallow grass and shamrock.

Our last hour slips; the seconds pass,

slow like powdered

ash in

hourglass.

 

In the willow tree, I hear your laugh.

Seconds turn to hours winding back

the winds and showering the whip-poor-will,

—I bet we won’t—

with flowers in the bath.

Copper coins we cast into

the bird bath blossom

brass.

 

Before I fed the birds

the words I meant to say

to you

that day—

 I knew you’d

 forgotten my name, Nana.

I wonder what bird baths offer but

rotten pennies.


Our last hour sours.

Hourglasses never cease but we

forgot to turn ours

over.

Sunlit

grass,

bathed in

shamrock.

Wrapped in clover.