{"id":552,"date":"2012-07-01T14:55:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-01T22:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=552"},"modified":"2012-07-01T15:07:03","modified_gmt":"2012-07-01T23:07:03","slug":"anne-mcduffie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=552","title":{"rendered":"Anne McDuffie"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Thought in the Shape of a Bird<\/p>\n

 
\nA thought in the shape of a bird
\nunfolds its subtle origami in three beats:
\nleaf \/ wren \/ leaf.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A gesture in the shape of habit
\nworrying the pavement for seeds,
\nits tail tipped straight up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Calder\u2019s \u201cEagle,\u201d fades red
\ninto the chestnuts beside the museum.
\nThe great, hooked beak, the cocked tail<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

distinctly flanged and wren-like, though I\u2019m not sure
\nit is a tail. There\u2019s no body here\u2014
\nonly line and curve, weld and bolt,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the scattershot lines of something
\nI\u2019ve seen before. Tail, brow, beak.
\nOr glide, spread, crouch.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I can\u2019t account for the piece that stands
\nstraight up\u2014<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

until a crow alights on top
\nand casts a languid eye on this poor human
\nscrabbling over the wet grass below,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and I feel a jot of pity for the wren
\nwho spasms into flight at my approach,
\nstitching escape across each retina.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This wren
\nsquats in my path, with the gravity
\nof a dead thing. Only a leaf<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve overtaken now, passed by
\nwhile the mind keeps circling,
\nwatching for movement, some flash or flicker under the surface.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the meat calling. And the mind,
\nwith its inquisitive talons, will answer. Will tip itself over
\ninto the pure line of its sight<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and fall.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cA Thought in the Shape of a Bird<\/a>\u201d originally appeared in Crab Creek Review<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anne McDuffie<\/a> writes essays, poetry and book reviews. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review<\/em>, Crab Creek Review<\/em>, A River and Sound Review<\/em>, Rattle<\/em>, American Book Review <\/em>and the anthology, Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction <\/em>(Norton, 2005). She received her MFA in 2007 from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University, and lives in Seattle, WA.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Thought in the Shape of a Bird   A thought in the shape of a bird unfolds its subtle origami in three beats: leaf \/ wren \/ leaf.   A gesture in the shape of habit worrying the pavement … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":[],"categories":[188,12,8],"tags":[214,213],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":561,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions\/561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}