Borrowed Bio

Borrowed Bio

Ange Mlinko

Where we'd recently lain,

 exchanging a kiss,

 stork consorted with crane, 

            limpkin with ibis.

Was this as much wedding

 as there would ever be,

 the fowls' foot-webbing,

            the identificatory

ring around a throat?

 Exchange of earth and air:

 not a vow but a vote

            of confidence a feather

might tip by a single scale ...    

 That one's a raconteur,

 so much salt in his tale;

            this one's a countertenor,

lilting above the feast.

 The archon of his hectare

  -- spotted -- spotted least.

            Here's a little heckler ...    

penciled seagull in the margin.

 Following line by line

 the path you took, I imagine

            no print so fine.