12/11/2018 Requiem for a Nest by Wanda Coleman | Poetry Foundation

Requiem for a Nest

BY WA N D A C O L E M A N

the winged thang built her dream palace

amid the fine green eyes of a sheltering bough
she did not know it was urban turf
disguised as serenely delusionally rural
nor did she know the neighborhood was rife
with slant-mawed felines and those long-taloned
swoopers of prey. she was ignorant of the acidity & oil
that slowly polluted the earth, and was never
to detect the serpent coiled one strong limb below

following her nature she flitted and dove

for whatever blades twigs and mud
could be found under the humming blue
and created a hatchery for her spawn
not knowing all were doomed

Wanda Coleman, “Requiem for a Nest” from Ostinato Vamps. Copyright © 2003. All rights are controlled by the

University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, www.pitt.edu/~press/. Used by permission of University of

Pittsburgh Press.

Source: Ostinato Vamps (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003)

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