Colloquy of the Finches
…..
the house finch
and the American gold
conduct a voluble
dialogue
upon the doctrine
of holy nests
and the divine prophecy
of trees
they praise their own
stewardship of insects
warn against
the sinful bees
enunciate their springtime
appetites
in punctilious liturgies
respect the far-off
cardinal
but worship only
in their local presbyteries
this canopy of cloudy skies
is their parish
and their paradise
and when they die
their wings belong
to the peasant worms
they prey upon
no wonder that their song is loud
and uncontested
no disputations
or heretics harm
their homespun
theological teachings
nor do their tweets
offend or shame
they are keepers of the sacred
ecumenical
and ecological
hifalutin and humble dream
that all our migrations
are manifestations
of God’s unchanging love
on this earth
of our bones
…..
This poem is from the book The Birds of Poverty Ridge by Brad Buchanan (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/the-birds-of-poverty-ridge-by-brad-buchanan/
Brad Buchanan taught British and Postcolonial Literature, as well as Creative Writing, at Sacramento State University until his retirement in 2016. His writings have appeared in more than 200 journals, and he has published four book-length collections of poetry, among them The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He has also published three academic books, a medical memoir, and a novel: Spy’s Mate. He was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in February 2015, and underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016. He is currently Northern California chapter leader of Man Up to Cancer, a support group for men coping with cancer. He also facilitates recurring online Writing As Healing workshops through the UC Davis Cancer Center, Cancer Bridges, and NMBTlink.
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