A Sky-Wide Russet Flock Ascending by L. Ward Abel

 

 

 

 


 

L. Ward Abel, poet, composer and performer, teacher, retired lawyer, lives in rural Georgia, has been published hundreds of times in print and online, and is the author of one full collection and eleven chapbooks of poetry, including Jonesing For Byzantium (UK Authors Press, 2006), The Heat of Blooming (Pudding House Press, 2008), American Bruise (Parallel Press, 2012), Little Town gods (Folded Word Press, 2016), A Jerusalem of Ponds (erbacce-Press, 2016), Digby Roundabout (Kelsay Books, 2017) and The Rainflock Sings Again(Unsolicited Press, 2019).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Sky-Wide Russet Flock Ascending

 

 

 

 

  

Before sunset but just
through the terraced clouds of a dusty month
and no rain since the hurricane,
end-time trumpets rise from local ponds
along the fall-line.

Since the fires of singularity up to now,
when that leaving shines through rows
of sibling pine and random skeleton
oaks, veterans from an oxbow creek
risen in the sun’s departure

streak orange under blue and
onto a thousand mirrors
flashing a sky-wide
russet flock
ascending.

 

 

L. Ward Abel

 

 

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