the hummingbird

The Hummingbird
–Blas Falconer

A blur in the periphery,
like the mind if the mind

were airborne, a buzz among
leaf and orange blossom.

the long beak pressing quick
into flower after flower, high

on each sweet center, and 
each iridescent feather shines

hard— a thought, half-formed,
charged, a hum before it lights

on the branch—and you
see it clearly—dimmed, now,

small, no longer what it was.