Geococcyx californianus
Greater roadrunner
Jane Miller
THE ROADRUNNER
1
Having barely escaped death today
you cannot judge too harshly
the opportunistic forager
seizing warblers from feeders and nests
traveling downhill or in danger flying
a few seconds as a bronze gloss
you must be prudent if one races
slow motion in front of your moving car
only to dart into brush
for the next thing you know
the lamp is lit and the eyeglasses await
the roadrunner as the reader
2
The Hopi believe the roadrunner
protects against evil
also kills fruit by a blow from its beak
or beats the neck of small mammals
against rock with ungodly speed
the adult will murder a scorpion or snake
on a terribly ardent morning
one stuns a dragonfly or hummingbird mid-air
or leaps from a dry riverbed
after low-flying unsuspecting white-throated swifts
if it’s a good book
the reincarnated poet will not mind
and clapped against granite
~~~~~
Jane Miller's poem sequence, Thunderbird, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2013.