Jazz Hawk

Renée M. Schell

Renée M. Schell

Third Place | Age 18+ category | Spring into Poetry Contest 2025 | San José Public Library

Is that an egret on the hill   
or something plastic flapping   
its white wings against the green

My heart's an old piece of fruit, the sections   
held together by rhythm & thin skin   
One bite from the world &   
what's in the center flows out—   
blood breaks the body's dam
  
In the middle distance   
a flock of—   
it must be starlings—   
rises & swells, crests & falls   
as if coaxed    
by an unseen bandleader     

I need a good cry but am expecting a call  
  
Two crows menace a hawk out of the cypress   
Six more respond to the squawking   
like offbeats riffing ink across the cloud cover     

A glimpse into Birdland   
the hawk dipping toward me   
passing the solo    
 
I pick up my phone, wail into it as if it were a sax,    
my song of deficiencies, subtext, and all that is green
1