Rae Spencer
What does a hummingbird know
In its world of nectar and need?
Nightly forced to torpor
By the constant urge to feed
Through staggering migration.
Are its dreams equally desperate?
Does it wake hungry,
Ill-tempered with beauty,
Cramped with desire,
Suddenly alert to the nature of sugar,
Aware that satisfaction can only ever be
…………Illusory?
And what does the hummingbird sense
As it sips the flower’s allure?
Does it know of delicate meanings
Pitched fever-tight
Into its tiny world of furtive speed?
Dare we surmise anything?
Maybe nectar is only a meal,
Sugar an ache that will pass,
Beauty an accident of form,
And nothing means more than a wing
Clasped into the air and released,
…………Effortless.
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Rae Spencer is a writer and veterinarian living in Virginia. Her poetry has been published in The Powhatan Review, The Healing Muse, The Chaffin Journal, vox poetica, Bolts of Silk, and Autumn Sky Poetry.
