Day Three of Your Absence

By Jeff Burt

I write like a magpie
speak like a raven
work like a hummingbird

but without you
in the cluster of leaves
in the harboring thicket

like a wintering quail
afraid of the length of its shadow, 
I bob, quiver.

___


Jeff Burt lives in Santa Cruz County, California, having grown up in the Midwest. He has published in River Styx, Rat's Ass Review, Sunlight Press, and others. He has a book of poems, The Root Endures, out from Sheila-Na-Gig. More can be found at http://www.jeff-burt.com