Mourning doves
ooAAH coo cooo coo
as kosher Dunkin’ Donuts bake
sending sweet clouds to dust dawn
over the Raritan’s Albany Street
Bridge
Above rowhouse rooftops, cedar waxwings lisp
fruity trills, svelte
banditos take communion
holding rosy red berries in their beaks and bellies
exchanging pleasantries between Highland Park
neighbors, a polite migrating masquerade
Roosevelt roosters gargoyle
on the water tower, a large Lego on stilts
below, elementary school children
hopscotch, tag you’re it
skulking raptors lick their lips
Bauhous bowers cuddle up to
Assunpink’s bog
where a white-throated sparrow
Old-Sam-Peabody-Peabody
serenades as Torahs unfurl
trusting daylight
Largo al factotum, little bird Figaros
Pine Barrens hushed
in secrets they’ll never tell
a heedless nuthatch mouses
downside up squeaking
like a rubber ducky
A silent skein of geese glides
over cars
without honking heading home at
dusk
shadows lengthen, fiddler crabs
pull sandy blankets
over their heads in a cozy shush
as moonlight flickers over
Barnegat Bay
